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COPVRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



PARIS WAR DAYS 




Copyright by Harris & Ewing, Washington. D. C. 

Myron T. Herrick, American Ambassador in Paris. Frontispiece. 



PARIS WAR DAYS 



DIARY OF AN AMERICAN 



BY 
CHARLES INMAN BARNAUD, LL.B. (Harvard) 

Kjjight of the Legion of Honor 

Paris Correspondent of The New York Tribune 

President of The Association of the Foreign Press in Paris 

Chairman of the Harvard Club of Paris 



NGN 



REFERT 




aiAlV/vD»a3S 



BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 

1914 






Copyright, 1914, 
By Little, Brown, and Company. 

All rights reserved 



Published, November, 1914 



NOV {6 1914 



THE COLONIAL PRESS 
C. H. 8IMONDS CO., BOSTON, U. 8. A. 



^GI.A888418 



•4- 






TO 

Ogden SIXills %eii 

EDITOR OF THE NEW YOKE TRIBUNE 

THIS DIARY IS DEDICATED 

IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF 

HIS FATHER, THE LATE 

Whilelaw lieid 



PREFACE 

This is not a story of the world-wide war. These 
notes, jotted down at odd moments in a diary, are 
published with the idea of recording, day by day, 
the aspect, temper, mood, and humor of Paris, 
when the entire manhood of France responds with 
profound spontaneous patriotism to the call of mo- 
bilization in defense of national existence. France 
is herself again. Her capital, during this supreme 
trial, is a new Paris, the like of which, after the 
present crisis is over, will probably not be seen 
again by any one now living. 

As a youth in the spring of 1871, I witnessed 
Paris, partly in ruins, emerging from the scourges 
of German invasion and of the Commune. As a 
correspondent of the New York Herald, under the 
personal direction of my chief, Mr. James Gordon 
Bennett — for whom I retain a deep-rooted friend- 
ship and admiration for his sterling, rugged qualities 
of a true American and a masterly journalist — it 
was my good fortune, during fourteen years, to share 
the joys and charms of Parisian life. I was in Paris 

[ vii ] 



PREFACE 

during the throes of the Dreyfus affau* when, at the 
call of the late Whitelaw Reid, I began my duties as 
resident correspondent of the New York Tribune. I 
saw Paris suffer the winter floods of 1910. Whether 
in storm or in sunshine, I have always found myself 
among friends in this vivacious center of humanity, 
intelligence, art, science, and sentiment, where our 
countrymen, and above all our countrywomen, 
realize that they have a second home. With a 
finger on the pulse, as it were, of Paris, I have 
sought to register the throbs and feelings of Paris- 
ians and Americans during these war days. 

I acknowledge deep indebtedness to the Euro- 
pean edition of the New York Herald, and to the 
Continental edition of the Daily Mail, from whose 
columns useful data and information have been 
freely drawn. 

C. I. B. 

Paris, October, 191 J/,. 



I viii ] 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Myron T.Herrick, American Ambassador in Paris. Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Shop of a German merchant in Paris, wrecked by French 

mobs 12 

Sewing-girls at work in the American Episcopal Church 26 

■ American Ambulance Hospital at Neuilly ... 30 

Paris workmen hastening to join the colors ... 38 

Woman replacing man in traffic work .... 42 

General Victor Constant Michel, Military Governor of 

Paris until August 27, 1914 48 

The Statue of Strasbourg, after the capture of Altkirch 

in Alsace by French troops 60 

Americans in Paris besieging the American Express Com- 
pany's office for funds for their daily bread . . 66 

French Negro troops from Africa entraining in Paris . 84 

Flag of the 132nd German Infantry Regiment, captured 
at Saint-Blaise by the 1st Battalion of Chasseurs a 
Pied 98 

Robert Woods Bliss, First Secretary of the United States 

Embassy in Paris, September, 1914 .... 106 

A party of American volimteers crossing the Place de 

I'Opera in Paris on their way to enlist . . . 114 
[ix] 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE 

General Joseph Simon Gallieni, appointed Military Gov- 
ernor and Commander of the Array of Paris, August 
26,1914 120 

Etienne Alexandre Millerand, Minister of War, August 

27,1914 128 

Parisians watching the German air craft that drop bombs 

on the city 138 

Eiffel Tower's searchlight to reveal bomb-throwing air 

craft and air scouts of the Germans .... 142 

Woimded French soldiers returning to Paris with trophies 

from the battlefields 146 

29th Infantry Reserves, Army of the Defence of Paris . 152 

General Joffre, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies 

in France 160 

M. Emile Laurent, appointed Prefect of Police of Paris, 

September 3, 1914 168 

Workmen erecting a barricade in Paris . . . .180 

" Sauf-Conduit " issued by the Prefecture of Police to per- 
sons wishing to travel 214 

One of the wards in the American Ambulance Hospital at 

NeuiUy . . . . - 220 



Ix] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 



Saturday, August 1, 191^. 
This war conies'^ like the traditional " Bolt from 
the Blue! " I had made arrangements to retire 
from active journalism and relinquish the duties of 
Paris correspondent of the New York Tribune, 
which I had fulfilled for sixteen consecutive years. 
In reply to a request from Mr. Ogden Reid, I had 
expressed willingness to remain at my post in Paris 
until the early autumn, inasmuch as " a quiet 
summer was expected." Spring was a busy time 
for newspaper men. There had been the sensational 
assassination of Gaston Calmette, editor ofj the 
Figaro, by Mme. Caillaux, wife of the cabinet min- 
ister. Then there was the ** caving-in " of the 
streets of Paris, owing to the effect of storms on the 
thin surface left by the underground tunnelling 
for the electric tramways, and for the new metro- 
politan " tubes." The big prize fight between Jack 
Johnson and Frank Moran for the heavy-weight 

[1] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

championship of the world followed. Next came 
the trial of Mme. Caillaux and her acquittal. Then 
followed the newspaper campaign of the brothers, 
MM. Paul and Guy de Cassagnac, against German 
newspaper correspondents in Paris. The Cassa- 
gnacs demanded that certain German correspond- 
ents should quit French territory within twenty- 
four hours. As several German correspondents 
were members of the " Association of the Foreign 
Press ", of which I happen to be president, I was 
able to smooth matters over a little. Although my 
personal sympathies were strongly with the Cas- 
sagnacs, who are editors of L^AutoritS, especially in 
their condemnation of the severity of the German 
Government in regard to " Hansi ", the Alsatian 
caricaturist and author of Mon Village, I managed 
with the help of some of my Russian, Italian, Eng- 
lish, and Spanish colleagues to avoid needless duels 
and quarrels between French and German jour- 
nalists. Finally, the day of the " Grand Prix de 
Paris " brought the news of the murder at Sara- 
jevo of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. 
My friend, Mr. Edward Schuler, was despatched by 
the Associated Press to Vienna, and when he re- 
turned, I readily saw, from the state of feeling that 

[2] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

he described as existing in Vienna, that war be- 
tween Austria and Servia was inevitable, and that 
unless some supreme effort should be made for 
peace by Emperor William, a general European 
war must follow. 

Wednesday, July 29, the day after Austria's dec- 
laration of war against Servia, I lunched at the 
Hotel Ritz with Mrs. Marshall Field and her 
nephew, Mr. Spencer Eddy. Mrs. Field was about 
to leave Paris for Aix-les-Bains. We talked about 
the probability of Russia being forced to make war 
with Germany. I warned Mrs. Field of the risk 
she would run in going to Aix-les-Bains, and in the 
event of mobilization, of being deprived of her 
motor-car and of all means of getting away. At 
that time no one seemed to think that war really 
would break out. Mrs. Field finally gave up her 
plan of going to Aix-les-Bains and went to London. 
The following evening Maitre Charles Philippe of 
the Paris Bar and M. Max-Lyon, a French railroad 
engineer who had built many of the Turkish and 
Servian railroads, dined with me. They both felt 
that nothing could now avert war between France 
and Germany. 

Yesterday (July 31) a sort of war fever permeated 
[31 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

the air. A cabinet minister assured me that at 
whatever capital there was the slightest hope of 
engaging in negotiations and compromise, at that 
very point the " mailed fist " diplomacy of the 
Kaiser William dealt an unexpected blow. There 
seems no longer any hope for peace, because it is 
evident that the Military Pretorian Guard, ad- 
visers to the German and Austrian emperors, are in 
the ascendency, and they want war. " Very well, 
they will have it! " remarked the veteran French 
statesman, M. Georges ClemenQeau. 

After dinner last evening I happened to be near 
the Cafe du Croissant near the Bourse and in the 
heart of the newspaper quarter of Paris. Sud- 
denly an excited crowd collected. " Jaures has 
been assassinated! " shouted a waiter. The French 
deputy and anti-war agitator was sitting with his 
friends at a table near an open window in the cafe. 
A young Frenchman named Raoul Villain, son of a 
clerk of the Civil Court of Rheims, pushed a re- 
volver through the window and shot Jaures through 
the head. He died a few moments later. The 
murder of the socialist leader would in ordinary 
times have so aroused party hatred that almost 
civil war would have broken out in Paris. But to- 

[4] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

night, under the tremendous patriotic pressure of 
the German emperor's impending onslaught upon 
France, the whole nation is united as one man. As 
M. Arthur Meyer, editor of the Gaulois, remarked: 
"France is now herself again! Not since a hun- 
dred years has the world seen * France Deboutl ' " 

At four o'clock this afternoon I was standing on 
the Place de la Bourse when the mobilization no- 
tices were posted. Paris seemed electrified. All 
cabs were immediately taken. I walked to the 
Place de I'Opera and Rue de la Paix to note the 
effect of the mobilization call upon the people. 
Crowds of young men, with French flags, prom- 
enaded the streets, shouting ** Vive La France!" 
Bevies of young sewing-girls, midinettes, collected 
at the open windows and on the balconies of the 
Rue de la Paix, cheering, waving their handker- 
chiefs at the youthful patriots, and throwing down 
upon them handfuls of flowers and garlands that 
had decked the fronts of the shops. The crowd 
was not particularly noisy or boisterous. No cries 
of " On to Berlin! " or " Down with the Germans! " 
were heard. The shouts that predominated were 
simply: "Vive La France!" "Vive I'Armee! " 
and "Vive I'Angleterre! " One or two British 

[5] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

flags were also borne along beside the French tri- 
color. 

I cabled the following message to Mr. Ogden 
Reid, editor of the New York Tribune: 

Tribune, New York, Private for Mr. Reid. Suggest 
supreme importance event hostilities of Brussels as center 
of all war news. Also that Harry Lawson, Daily Tele- 
graphy London, is open any propositions coming from you 
concerning Tribune sharing war news service with his 
paper. According best military information be useless 
expense sending special men to front with French owing 
absolute rigid censorship. Barnard. 

I based this suggestion about the supreme im- 
portance of Brussels because it has for years been 
an open secret among military men that the only 
hope of the famous attaque brusquSe of the German 
armies being successful would be by violating Bel- 
gian neutrality and swarming in like wasps near 
Liege and Namur, and surprising the French mo- 
bilization by sweeping by the lines of forts con- 
structed by the foremost military engineer in 
Europe, the late Belgian general, De Brialmont. 

I subsequently received a cable message from 
the editor of the Tribune expressing the wish to 
count upon my services during the present crisis. 
To this I promptly agreed. 

[6] 



Sunday, August 2. 

This is the first day of mobilization. I looked 
out of the dining-room window of my apartment 
at Number 8 Rue Theodule-Ribot at four this 
morning. Already the streets resounded with the 
buzz, whirl, and horns of motor-ears speeding along 
the Boulevard de Courcelles, and the excited con- 
versation of men and women gathered in groups on 
the sidewalks. It was warm, rather cloudy weather. 
Thermometer, 20 degrees centigrade, with light, 
southwesterly breezes. My servant, Felicien, sum- 
moned by the mobilization notices calling out the 
reservists, was getting ready to join his regiment, 
the Thirty-second Dragoons. His young wife and 
child had arrived the day before from Brittany. 
My housekeeper, Sophie, who was born in Baden- 
Baden and came to Paris with her mother when a 
girl of eight, is in great anxiety lest she be expelled, 
owing to her German nationality. 

I walked to the chancellery of the American Em- 
bassy, Number 5 Rue de Chaillot, where fifty 
stranded Americans were vainly asking the clerks 

[7] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

how they could get away from Paris and how they 
could have their letters of credit cashed. Three 
stray Americans drove up in a one-horse cab. I 
took the cab, after it had been discharged, and 
went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where I 
expected to find our Ambassador, Mr. Myron T. 
Herrick. M. Viviani, the President of the Council 
of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs, was 
there awaiting the arrival of Baron de Schoen, the 
German Ambassador, who had made an appoint- 
ment for eleven o'clock. It was now half-past 
eleven, and his German excellency had not yet 
come. 

I watched the arrival of the St. Cyr cadets at the 
Gare d'Orsay station on their way to the Gare de 
I'Est. These young French " West Pointers " are 
sturdy, active, wiry little chaps, brimful of pluck, 
intelligence, and determination. They carried their 
bags and boxes in their hands, and their overcoats 
were neatly folded bandeliere fashion from the right 
shoulder to the left hip. Then came a couple of 
hundred requisitioned horses led by cavalrymen. 
Driving by the Invalides, I noticed about five 
hundred requisitioned automobiles. I was very 
much impressed by the earnest, grave determina- 

[8] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

tion of the reservists, who were silently rejoining 
their posts. Some of them were accompanied by 
wives, sisters, or sweethearts, who concealed their 
tears with forced smiles. Now and then groups of 
young men escorted the reservists, singing the 
" Marseillaise '* and waving French, British, and 
Russian flags. At the Place de la Concorde, near 
the statue of " Strasbourg ", was a procession of 
Italians, who had offered their military services to 
the Minister of War in spite of Italy's obligation 
to the Triple Alliance. 

Later, at the American Embassy, Number 5 Rue 
Frangois Premier, I found Ambassador Herrick 
arranging for a sort of relief committee of Ameri- 
cans to aid and regulate the situation of our stranded 
countrymen and women here. There are about 
three thousand who want to get home, but who 
are unable to obtain money on their letters of 
credit; if they have money, they are unable to find 
trains, or passenger space on westward bound liners. 
Mr. Herrick showed me a cablegram from the 
State Department at Washington instructing him 
to remain at his post until his successor, Mr. Sharp, 
can reach Paris; also to inform Mr. Thomas Nelson 
Page, American Ambassador at Rome, to cancel 

[9] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

his leave of absence and stop in Rome, even if 
" Italy had decided to remain neutral." As soon 
as the German and Austro-Hungarian ambassadors 
quit the capital, Mr. Herrick will be placed in 
charge of all the German and Austro-Hungarian 
subjects left behind here. I met also M. J. J. 
Jusserand, French Ambassador at Washington, 
who intends sailing Tuesday for New York. 
M. Jusserand informed me that official news had 
reached the Paris Ministry of the Interior of Ger- 
many's violation of the territory of Luxemburg, the 
independence of which had been guaranteed by 
the Powers, including of course Prussia, by the 
Treaty of London in 1867. M. Jusserand was very 
indignant at this reckless breach of international 
law. 

At the suggestion of Mr. Herrick, a committee 
of Americans was chosen to co-operate with him in 
giving such information and advice to Americans 
in Paris as the ejfforts of the committee to ascertain 
facts and conditions may justify. The committee 
think there is no cause for alarm on the part of 
those who remain in the city for the present; and 
that Americans will be able to leave at some later 
date, if any desire to do so. 

[10] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

The committee will endeavor to learn what can 
be done in securing money on letters of credit or 
travelers' cheques, or in getting means of trans- 
portation to such places as they may desire to go. 

The committee includes Messrs. Laurence B. 
Benet, W. S. Dalliba, Charles Carroll, Frederick 
Coudert, James Deering, Chauncey M. Depew, 
E. H. Gary, H. Herman Harjes, William Jay, F. B. 
Kellog, Percy Peixotto, and Henry S. Priest. The 
chairman is Judge E. H. Gary. 

Mr. Herrick asked me to convey a private mes- 
sage to one of his friends, but as the telephone 
service was interrupted, Mr. Laurence Norton, the 
Ambassador's secretary, loaned me his motor-car 
for the purpose. On the Cour La Reine a proces- 
sion of young men escorting reservists and bearing 
a French flag appeared. I naturally raised my hat 
to salute the colors. The crowd, noticing the red, 
white, and blue cockades on the hats of the chauf- 
feur and the footman, mistook me for the American 
Ambassador or for a cabinet minister, and burst 
into frantic cheers. 

In the German quarter, near the Rue d'Haute- 
ville, a couple of German socialists who were so 
imprudent as to shout " A has Varmee! " were sur- 

[11] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

rounded by angry Frenchmen, and despite an at- 
tempt of the police to protect them, were very 
roughly handled. A German shoemaker who at- 
tempted to charge exaggerated prices for boots had 
his windows smashed and his stock looted by an 
infuriated crowd. 

The news that the German shops were being at- 
tacked soon spread, and youths gathered in bands, 
going from one shop to the other and wrecking them 
in the course of a few moments. Further riots 
occurred near the Gare de I'Est, a district which is 
inhabited by a large number of Germans. A great 
deal of damage was done. 

Measures were taken at once by the authorities, 
and several cavalry detachments were called to the 
aid of the police. The youths were quite docile on 
the whole, a word from a policeman being sufficient 
to turn them away. 

The cavalry, too, only made a few charges at a 
sharp trot and were received vith hearty cheers. 
Policemen and municipal guards were, however, 
stationed before shops known to be owned by Ger- 
mans. 

In spite of this rioting, responsible Parisians may 
be said to have remained as calm as they have been 

[12] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

all through this critical time. Among those taking 
part in wrecking shops were few people older than 
seventeen or eighteen. 

Already the familiar aspect of the Parisian street 
crowd has changed. It is now composed almost 
exclusively of men either too young or too old for 
military service and of women and children. Most 
of the younger generation have already left to join 
corps on the front or elsewhere in France. It is 
impossible to spend more than a few minutes in the 
streets without witnessing scenes which speak of 
war. 

There are long processions of vehicles of all sorts, 
market carts, two-wheeled lorries, furniture vans, 
all of them stocked with rifles for the reserves and 
all of them led or driven by soldiers. 

Not a motor-omnibus is to be seen. The taxi- 
cabs and cabs are scarce. Tramway-cars are run- 
ning, although on some lines the service is reduced 
considerably. In spite of the disorganization of 
traffic, the majority of Parisians go about their 
business quietly. 

There is deep confidence in the national cause. 
** We did not want this war, but as Germany has 
begun we will fight, and Germany will find that 

[13] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

the heart of France is in a war for freedom ", is an 
expression heard on all sides. 

Everywhere there are touching scenes. In the 
early hours of the morning a chasseur covered with 
dust, who had come to bid farewell to his family, 
was seen riding through the city. As he rode down 
the street, an old woman stopped him and said: 
" Do your best! They killed my husband in '70." 
The young soldier stooped from his saddle and 
silently gripped the old woman's hand. 



[14] 



Monday, August 3. 

This is the second day of mobilization. A warm, 
cloudy day with occasional showers. Thermome- 
ter, 20 degrees centigrade. 

At six this morning Felicien, with a brown paper 
parcel containing a day's rations consisting of cold 
roast beef, sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, bread, 
butter, and potato salad, walked ojff to the Gare 
St. Lazare, which is his point of rendezvous indi- 
cated by the mobilization paper. His young wife 
wept as if broken-hearted. Felicien, like all the 
reservists, restrained his emotions. I shook him 
warmly by the hand and said that I would surely 
see him again here within six months, and that he 
would come home a victor. ** Don't be afraid of 
that, sir! " was his reply, and away he went. 

I watched the looting of the Maggi milk shops 
near the Place des Ternes. The marauders were 
youths from fifteen to eighteen years old, and 
seemed to have no idea of the crimes they were 
committing. The Maggi is no longer a German 
enterprise, and the stupid acts of these young 

[15] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

ruffians can only have the effect of depriving French 
mothers and infants of much-needed milk. I 
bought a bicycle to-day at Peugeot's in the Avenue 
of the Grande Armee, because it is hopeless to get 
cabs or motor-cabs. While there, the shop was 
requisitioned by an officer, who took away with 
him three hundred bicycles for the army. 

The aspect of the main thoroughfares in the 
Opera quarter, the center of English and American 
tourist traffic, was depressing in the extreme this 
afternoon. All the shipping offices in the Rue 
Scribe closed in the morning. The Rue de la Paix 
is never very brilliant in August, but now it is an 
abode of desolation. Nine tenths of the shops have 
their shutters up and the jewelers who keep open 
have withdrawn all their stock from the windows. 

Many of the closed shops on the boulevards and 
elsewhere bear placards designed to protect them 
from the possible attentions of the mob. On these 
placards are such texts as " Maison Frangaise " or 
even " Maison ultrafrangaise." 

On the Cafe de la Paix is the following announce- 
ment, in several places: "The proprietor, Andre 
Millon, who is mayor of Evecquemont (Seine-et- 
Oise), has been called out for service in the army 

[16] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

and left this morning." Similar messages, written 
in chalk, are to be seen on hundreds of shutters. 

Steps have been taken at the American Embassy 
to supply credentials, in the form of " a paper of 
nationality ", to citizens of the United States, which 
will make it possible for them to register as such 
with the police, as required by the French Govern- 
ment. 

The proposed American Ambulance has been 
organized under the official patronage of Ambassa- 
dor Herrick, and the auspices of the American Hos- 
pital of Paris. 

Beginning to-day, all cafes and restaurants will 
be closed at eight in the evening. They were left 
open till nine yesterday as an exceptional measure, 
owing to the fact that there was not time to dis- 
tribute the order for early closing by eight o'clock. 

The aspect of the boulevards last night was the 
completest possible contrast to what was seen on 
Sunday night. The city was under martial law, 
and the police showed very plainly that they did 
not intend to be trifled with. 

Instead of shouting crowds and stone-throwing 
by excited youths and women, one saw only a few 
citizens walking slowly along. One group of police- 

[17] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

men took shelter from the intermittent showers 
under the marquise of the Vaudeville Theater, and 
other detachments were in readiness at corners all 
along the line of the boulevards, which were dotted 
with isolated policemen. 

No one was allowed to loiter. To wait five 
minutes outside a house was to court investigation 
and possibly arrest. There was no sound except 
that of footfalls and a low murmur of conversation. 
It was the first night of war's stern government. 

Germany officially declared war upon France at 
five forty-five this evening. The notification was 
made by Baron von Schoen, the German Ambassa- 
dor to France, when he called at the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs to ask for his passports. 

Baron von Schoen declared that his Government 
had instructed him to inform the Government of the 
Republic that French aviators had flown over Bel- 
gium and that other French aviators had flown 
over Germany and dropped bombs as far as Nurem- 
berg. He added that this constituted an act of 
aggression and violation of German territory. 

M. Viviani listened in silence to Baron von 
Schoen 's statement, and when the German Am- 
bassador had finished, replied that it was abso- 

[18] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

lutely false that French aviators had flown over 
Belgium and Germany and had dropped bombs. 

Immediately after this interview, M. Viviani tele- 
graphed to M. Jules Cambon, French Ambassador 
in Berlin, instructing him to immediately ask for 
his passports and to make a report on France's 
protest against the violation of the neutrality of 
Luxemburg and the ultimatum sent to Belgium. 
M. Cambon will leave Berlin to-morrow. 

Since acts of war were committed by German 
troops two days ago, the delay in the recall of the 
German Ambassador had appeared inexplicable to 
the great majority of French people, to whom Baron 
von Schoen appeared to be decidedly outstopping his 
welcome. 

The Ambassador himself seemed conscious of this 
feeling, for not only did he take care to proceed to 
the Quai d'Orsay in as inconspicuous a manner as 
possible, but he also applied to the authorities to 
detail a policeman to accompany him in his auto- 
mobile. 

Baron von Schoen's departure from Paris was a 
solemn affair. He left the Embassy last, after a vast 
collection of luggage had gone off in motor-wagons 
and other vehicles. A few minutes before ten 

[19] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

o'clock, wearing a soft felt hat and black frock coat 
adorned with the rosette of the Legion of Honor 
and carrying a rainproof coat over his arm, he left 
in a powerful automobile, which, by way of the 
Invalides, the Trocadero, and the Boulevard Flan- 
drin, conveyed him to the station. 

The station employes and the police on duty at 
the station formed a silent cordon, through which 
the departing Ambassador passed with downcast 
eyes. 

Not a word was spoken as the baron stood for a 
few minutes on the platform. 

Then the stationmaster said quietly: ** En voi- 
ture/' there was a shrill whistle, and the train, com- 
posed of five coaches and three goods trucks, glided 
slowly out of the station. 



[20 



Tuesday, August If. 

We are now in the third day of mobilization. 
Weather slightly cooler, 17 degrees centigrade, with 
moderate southwest wind. 

At seven this morning I went with Sophie to the 
registration office for Germans, Alsatians, and 
Austro-Hungarians, Number 213 Place Boulevard 
Periere. A crowd of some five hundred persons — 
men, women, and children — were waiting at the 
doors of the public schoolroom now used as the 
Siege du District for the seventeenth arrondissement. 
Although a German by birth, Sophie is French at 
heart. She came to Paris when only eight years 
old and has remained here ever since — she is now 
sixty-one — and has been thirty-two years with me 
as housekeeper and cook. All her German relatives 
are dead. Hers is a hard case, for if expelled from 
France, she would have to become practically a 
stranger in a strange land. Fortunately she has all 
her papers in order, and can show that she has nine 
nephews actually in the French army. I made a 
statement in writing for her to this effect, which she 

[21] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

took to the registration office, but she had to wait, 
standing without shelter from eight in the morning 
to six o'clock at night. After carefully scrutinizing 
her papers, the officials told her that her papers 
must go for inspection to the Prefecture of Police, 
and that she must come back for them to-morrow. 
She had with her photographs of three of her neph- 
ews in military uniforms. One of these nephews had 
received a decoration during the Morocco campaign 
for saving his captain's life during an engagement. 
I managed to see the Commissary of Police of 
the quarter and spoke to him about Sophie, ex- 
plaining her case and saying that as she was such a 
splendid cook it would be a great pity if Paris 
should lose her services. The commissary smiled 
and said : " It will be all right. Sophie will be 
allowed to remain in Paris! " I profited by the 
occasion to obtain a permis de sejour, or residence 
permit, for myself. The commissary, after noting 
on paper my personal description and measuring 
my height, handed me the precious document 
authorizing me to reside in the '' entrenched camp 
of Paris." These papers must be kept on one's 
person, ready to be shown whenever called for. 
Outside of the office about three hundred foreigners, 

[22] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

including Emile Wauters, the Belgian painter, and 
several well-known Americans and English, were 
waiting their turn to get into the office. I con- 
gratulated myself on having a journalist's coupe-file 
card that had enabled me to get in before the others, 
some of whom stood waiting for six hours before 
their turn came. This is an instance of stupid 
French bureaucracy or red-tapism. It would have 
been very easy to have distributed numbers to those 
waiting, and the applicants would then have been 
able, by calculating the time, to go about their 
business and return when necessary. Another in- 
stance of this fatal red-tapism of French officialdom 
came in the shape of a summons from the fiscal office 
of Vernon, where I have a little country place on 
the Seine, to pay the sum of two francs, which is 
the annual tax for a float I had there for boating 
purposes. This trivial paper, coming in amidst 
the whirlpool of mobilization, displays the men- 
tality of the provincial officials. 

After doing some writing, I went on my new 
bicycle to the chancellery of the United States 
Embassy and saw a crowd of about seventy Ameri- 
cans on the sidewalk awaiting their turn to obtain 
identification papers. I met here Mr. Bernard J. 

[23] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Schoninger, former president of the American Cham- 
ber of Commerce in Paris. The news of the out- 
break of war found him at Luchon in the Pyrenees. 
All train service being monopolized for the troops, 
he came in his automobile to Paris, a distance of 
about a thousand kilometers. All went smoothly 
until he reached Tours, when he was held up at 
every five kilometers by guards who demanded his 
papers. Chains or ropes were often stretched across 
the roads. Mr. Schoninger showed the guards his 
visiting card, explained who he was, and said that 
he was going to Paris on purpose to get his papers. 
The authorities were very civil, as they usually are 
to all Americans who approach them politely, and 
allowed him to motor to Neuilly, just outside the 
fortifications of Paris, 

I proceeded on my wheel to the Embassy, where 
I found our Ambassador very busy with the Ameri- 
can Relief Committee and with the American Am- 
bulance people. 

Several Americans at the Embassy were making 
impractical requests, as for instance that the Ameri- 
can Ambassador demand that the French Govern- 
ment accept the passports or identification papers 
issued by the American Embassy here in lieu of 

[24 1 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

permis de sejoiir. If the Frencli Government 
accorded this favor to the United States, all the 
other neutral nations would require the same priv- 
ilege, and thus in time of war, with fighting going 
on only a little over two hundred kilometers from 
Paris, the French Government would lose direct 
control of permission for foreigners to remain in the 
capital. 

It is estimated that there are over forty thousand 
Americans at present stranded in Europe, seventy- 
five hundred of them being in Paris. Of these 
fifteen hundred are without present means. 

The Embassy is literally besieged by hundreds 
of these unfortunate travelers. There were so 
many of them, and their demands were so urgent, 
that the Military Attache, Major Spencer Cosby, 
had to utilize the services of eight American army 
officers on leave to form a sort of guard to control 
their compatriots. These officers were Major Mor- 
ton John Henry, Captain Frank Parker, Captain 
Francis H. Pope, Lieutenants B. B. Summerwell, 
F. W. Honey cutt, Joseph B. Treat, J. H. Jouett, 
and H. F. Loomis. The last four are young 
graduates of West Point, the others being on the 
active list of the United States army. 

[ 25 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Ambassador Herrick set his face against any 
favoritism in receiving the applicants, and some 
very prominent citizens had to stand in line for 
hours before they could be admitted. Mr. Oscar 
Underwood, son of Senator-elect Underwood, is or- 
ganizing means to alleviate the distress among his 
countrymen and countrywomen in Paris. He has 
also asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to extend 
the time allowed for Americans to obtain formal 
permission to remain in France, and his request will 
no doubt be granted. 

Doctor Watson, rector of the American Church of 
the Holy Trinity, in the Avenue de I'Alma, has 
offered that building as temporary sleeping quar- 
ters for Americans who are unable to obtain shelter 
elsewhere, and is arranging to hold some trained 
nurses at the disposal of the feeble and sick. 

War is a wonderful leveler, but there could 
hardly be a greater piece of irony perpetrated by 
Fate than compelling well-to-do Americans, who 
have no share in the quarrel on hand, to sleep in a 
church in France like destitutes before any of the 
French themselves are called upon to undergo such 
an experience. 

At the Chamber of Deputies I witnessed a his- 
[26] 



PARIS WAH DAYS 

toric scene never to be forgotten. Some of the 
deputies were reservists and had come in their 
uniforms, but the rules prevented them from taking 
their seats in military attire. In the Diplomatic 
Tribune sat Sir Francis Bertie, the British Ambas- 
sador, side by side with M. Alexander Iswolsky, ^e-i"! '^^ T 
the Russian Ambassador. The Chamber filled in 
complete silence. The whole House, from royalists 
to socialists, listened, standing, to a glowing tribute 
by M. Paul Deschanel, president of the Chamber, 
to M. Jaures, over whose coffin, he said, the whole 
of France was united. " There are no more adver- 
saries ", exclaimed M. Deschanel, with a voice 
trembling with emotion, " there are only French- 
men." The whole house as one man raised a re- 
sounding shout of " Vive la France! " 

When M. Deschanel concluded, there was a 
pause during the absence of M. Viviani. The 
Premier entered, pale but confident, amid a hurri- 
cane of cheers and read amid a silence broken only 
by frenzied shouts of " Vive la France! " a speech 
detailing the whole course of the diplomatic nego- 
tiations, in which he placed upon Germany crush- 
ing responsibility for the catastrophe which has 
overtaken Europe. 

[27] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

The Chamber, before rising, adopted unanimously 
without discussion a whole series of bills making 
provision for national defense and the maintenance 
of order in France. 

M. Viviani's speech was interrupted by terrific 
cheering when he referred to the attitude adopted 
by the British and Belgian governments. All rose 
to face the diplomatic tribune, cheering again and 
again. 

M. Viviani's last phrase, " We are without re- 
proach. We shall be without fear ", swept the 
whole Chamber off its feet. 

The vast hemicycle was a compact mass of cheer- 
ing deputies, all waving aloft in their hands papers 
and handkerchiefs. From the tribunes of the public 
gallery shout after shout went up. At the foot of 
the presidential platform the gray-haired usher, 
with his 1870 war medals on his breasts, was seated, 
overcome with emotion, the tears coursing down his 
cheeks. 

Paris is back in the days of the curfew, and at 
eight o'clock, by order of the Military Governor of 
Paris, it is " lights out " on the boulevards, all the 
cafes close their doors, the underground railway 
ceases running, and policemen and sentinels chal- 

[28] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

lenge any one going home late, lest he should be a 
German spy. Paris is no longer " la ville lumiere " — 
it is a sad and gloomy city, where men and women 
go about with solemn, anxious faces, and every 
conversation seems to begin and end with the dread- 
ful word " War! " 

There is no more rioting in the streets. The 
bands of young blackguards who went about pil- 
laging the shops of inoffensive citizens have been 
cleared from the streets, and demonstrations of 
every kind are strictly forbidden. So far is this 
carried that a cab was stopped at the Madeleine, 
and a policeman ordered the cab driver to take the 
little French flag out of the horse's collar. 

In the evening the city is wrapped in a silence 
which makes it difficult to realize that one is in the 
capital of a great commercial center. The smallest 
of provincial villages would seem lively compared 
with the boulevards last night. But for large num- 
bers of policemen and occasional military patrols, 
the streets were practically deserted. 

There is, however, nothing for the police to do, 
for the sternly worded announcement that dis- 
turbers of the peace would be court-martialed had 
the instant effect of putting a stop to any noisy 

[29] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

demonstrations, let alone any attempts at pillage. 
Policemen can be seen sitting about on doorsteps 
or leaning against trees. 

Parisians are already going through a small re- 
vival of what they did during the siege of 1871. 
They are lining up at regular hours outside pro- 
vision shops and waiting their turn to be served. 
Many large groceries are open only from nine to 
eleven in the morning and from three to five in the 
afternoon, not because there is any scarcity of food, 
but on account of lack of assistants, all their young 
men being at the front or on their way there. 

Great activity is already being shown in preparing 
to receive wounded soldiers from the front, and all 
the ambulance and nursing societies are working 
hand in hand. 

The women of Paris are being enrolled in special 
schools where they will be taught the art of nursing, 
and thousands of young women and girls in the 
provinces have promised to help their country by 
making uniforms and bandages. Others will look 
after the children of widowers who have gone to 
the front, and in various other ways the women of 
France are justifying their reputation for cheerful 
self-abnegation. 

[30] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

The Medical Board of the American Hospital held 
another meeting at the hospital in Neuilly, to con- 
sider further the organization of the hospital for 
wounded soldiers, with an ambulance service, which 
it is proposed to offer as an American contribution 
to France in her hour of trouble. 

Just how extensive this medical service will be 
depends upon the amount of money that will be 
obtained from Americans. The enterprise was given 
its first impulse at a meeting of the Board of Gov- 
ernors and the Medical Board of the American 
Hospital held on Monday at the request of Am- 
bassador Herrick. 

It is intended to establish at first a hospital of 
one hundred or two hundred beds, fully equipped 
to care for wounded French soldiers. Several places 
are under consideration, but at present no infor- 
mation of a definite character can be given on this 
subject. Later, if Americans are sufficiently gener- 
ous in their contributions, it is proposed to obtain 
from the French Government the use of the Lycee 
Pasteur in Neuilly, not far from the American 
Hospital. In this building a'^thousand beds could be 
placed, and it is hoped that funds will be available 
to undertake this larger ambulance service. 

[31] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Meanwhile the American Hospital at Neuilly is 
not to be affected in any way by this emergency 
undertaking, but it will continue its work for Ameri- 
cans in need of medical attention. The special 
hospital for soldiers is to be an American offering 
under the auspices of the American Hospital and 
under the direction of the Medical Board of that 
institution. 

The Medical Board of the American Hospital 
consists of Doctor Robert Turner, chairman; Doc- 
tor Magnier, who is well known as the founder of 
the hospital; Doctor Debuchet, Doctor Gros, Doc- 
tor Koenig and Doctor Whitman. 

Mrs. Herrick, Mrs. Potter Palmer, Mrs. Carolan, 
and other prominent American women have applied 
for service with the Red Cross. 



[32] 



Wednesday, August 5. 

Fourth day of mobilization. Cloudy weather 
with southwesterly wind, temperature at five p. m. 
21 degrees centigrade. 

Looking out of the window this morning I no- 
ticed British flags waving beside French flags on 
several balconies and shops. England's declaration 
of war against Germany arouses tremendous en- 
thusiasm. The heroic defense made by the Bel- 
gians against three German army corps advancing 
on the almost impregnable fortress of Liege — a 
second Port Arthur — is a magnificent encourage- 
ment for the French. At some of the houses in 
Paris one now sees occasionally assembled the flags 
of France, Russia, Great Britain, Belgium, and 
Servia. 

Paris is beginning to settle down more or less to 
the abnormal state of things prevailing in the city 
since the departure of the reservists. Those who 
remain behind are showing an admirable spirit. 
Nowhere are complaints voiced in regard to the 
complete disorganization of the public services. 

[33] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

M. Hennion, chief of police, has devised an excel- 
lent means of clearing the streets of dangerous in- 
dividuals. He has arranged for half a dozen auto- 
busses containing a dozen poHcemen to circulate 
in the different quarters at night. The auto-busses 
stop now and then, and the police make a silent 
search for marauders. Any one found with a re- 
volver or a knife is arrested, put in handcuffs, and 
placed in the auto-bus and carried to the police 
station. 

Sophie at last got her permis de sSjour this eve- 
ning. The expelled Germans will be sent to a remote 
station near the Spanish frontier. The undesirable 
Austro-Hungarians will be relegated to Brittany, 
where perhaps they may be utilized in harvesting 
the wheat crop. Germans in the domestic service 
of French citizens are allowed to remain in 
Paris. 

The French Institute is participating in the 
campaign reservist mobilization. M. Etienne Lamy, 
Perpetual Secretary of the French Academy, is a 
major in the territorial army and is about to take 
the field. M. Pierre Loti, who is a captain in the 
navy, will be provided with a suitable command. 
M. Marcel Prevost, graduate of the Polytechnic 

[34] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

School, is a major of artillery, and will command a 
battery in one of the forts near Paris. 

Among American ladies added to the list of those 
who have volunteered for service with the Red 
Cross are Mrs. Gary, Mrs. E. Tuck, Mrs. Hickox, 
Mrs. George Munroe, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Bell, Mrs. 
French, Mrs. G. Gray, Mrs. Gurnee, Mrs. Burden, 
Mrs. Harjes, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Dalliba, Mrs. 
Burnell, Mrs. Farwell, Mrs. Blumenthal, Mrs. 
Moore, Mrs. Walter Gay, Mrs. Tiffany, Mrs. Allan, 
Miss Gillett, and Miss Gurnee. 

A number of American and English-speaking 
physicians and surgeons responded to the appeal 
made by Doctor J. M. Gershberg, of New York, 
visiting physician to the Hopital Broca, and at- 
tended a meeting held at Professor Pozzi's dispen- 
sary to form an organization offering their medical 
and surgical services to the French Government and 
the Red Cross Society. 

Doctor Gershberg explained that the plan is to 
form three bodies: a body of English-speaking 
physicians and surgeons, a body of English-speaking 
nurses, and a body of English-speaking attendants. 

The proprietor of the Hotel Chatham, a reserve 
officer in the artillery, and M. C. Michaut, ex- 

[35] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

reserve officer of artillery, have decided to place the 
establishment at the disposal of the Red Cross So- 
ciety for the reception of wounded soldiers. 

Americans arriving in Paris from Germany and 
Switzerland continue to bring stories of hardships 
inflicted on them by the sudden outbreak of war. 
Mr. T. C. Estee, of New York, who reached Paris 
with his family, reported that he left behind at 
Zurich two hundred Americans who apparently had 
no means of getting away. 

He and his family were lucky enough to catch the 
last train conveying troops westward. They trav- 
eled for two days without food or water, one of the 
ladies fainting from exhaustion, and after the train 
reached its destination they had to walk several 
miles across the frontier, where they were taken on 
board a French troop train. They lost all their 



Eight other Americans reported a similar expe- 
rience. They had a tramp of ten miles into France, 
and one of their number, a lady partly paralyzed, 
had to be carried. They could procure no food 
until they reached France. Finally they obtained a 
motor-car which brought them to Paris. This 
memorable journey began at Dresden. 

[361 



Thursday, August 6. 

Fifth day of mobilization. Cloudy in the morn- 
ing, fair in the afternoon. Thermometer at five 
p. M. 17 degrees centigrade. 

Our Ambassador, Mr. Herrick, whom I saw in 
the afternoon, is delighted with the progress being 
made with the American Hospital for the French 
wounded. Mrs. Herrick is getting on famously 
with her organization of the woman's committee of 
the American Ambulance of Paris, which is to be 
offered to the French MiHtary Government for the 
aid of wounded soldiers. 

Mrs. Herrick was elected president of the com- 
mittee, Mrs. Potter Palmer vice-president, Mrs. 
H. Herman Harjes treasurer, and Mrs. Laurence 
V. Benet secretary. An executive committee was 
then elected, consisting of Mrs. Laurence V. Benet, 
Mrs. H. Herman Harjes, Mrs. Potter Palmer, Mrs. 
Carroll of Carrollton, and Mrs. George Munroe. 

Among the women present at the meeting, in 
addition to those already named, were: Mrs. Elbert 
H. Gary, Mrs. William Jay, Mrs. A. M. Thackara, 

[37] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Mrs. James Henry Smith, Mrs. J. Burden, Mrs. 
Dalliba, Mrs. Blumenthal, Mrs. Walter Gay, Mrs. 
Tuck, Mrs. Charles Barney, Mrs. Whitney Warren, 
Mrs. Philip Lydig, Mrs. Hickox, Mrs. F. Bell, Mrs. 
French, Mrs. Frederick Allen, Mrs. Farwell, Miss 
Edyth Deacon, Mrs. Cameron, Mrs. William 
Crocker, Mrs. Herman B. Duryea, Mrs. Roche, 
Miss Hallmark, Mrs. Robert Bliss, Mrs. Crosby, 
Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Howe, Miss Allien, Mrs. Carolan 
and Mrs. Marcou. 

At the Embassy, I met Colonel William Jay, 
whom I had known as a boy when he was aide-de- 
camp to General Meade, then in command of the 
Army of the Potomac. We talked about the pros- 
pects of the war and especially of the Belgians' 
superb defense at Liege and also discussed the re- 
port that a British force had been transported to 
Havre. I called at the Ministry of War this morn- 
ing, and Colonel Commandant Duval, chief of the 
press bureau there, gave me a laisser-passer to enter 
the Ministry three times a day : ten in the morning, 
three in the afternoon, and at eleven o'clock at night 
to get the oflficial news communicated by the War 
Department to the newspapers. It is odd to notice 
the martial aspect of the doorkeepers and ushers 

[38] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

at the War Office. Their moustaches have become 
longer and fiercer, and their replies to most trivial 
questions are pronounced with an air of impressive 
mystery. At the War Office, I met M. Louis Bar- 
thou, former prime minister, who expressed genuine 
enthusiasm at the heroic fighting of the Belgians. 
I afterwards went to the Ministry of Foreign Af- 
fairs to see about having my coupe-file, or special 
pass, vised with a laisser-passer label. This can 
only be obtained at the Prefecture of Police upon 
the special authorization of the Foreign Office. I 
was told that although a few such permits had been 
granted, no decision will be taken in the matter 
before Saturday. 

M. Jusserand, French Ambassador at Washing- 
ton, together with his wife, made a vain attempt a 
few days ago to reach Havre in time to catch the 
France, which sailed before her schedule time — a 
precautionary measure, taken, it is said, to elude Ger- 
man cruisers. M. and Mme. Jusserand consequently 
failed to catch the liner and returned to Paris. 

Much to my surprise, Felicien, my servant, 
turned up at six p. m., having obtained leave from 
the reserve squadron of his regiment, the Thirty-sec- 
ond Dragoons at Versailles, to visit his wife in Paris. 

[39] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

The active squadrons of his regiment are at Cha- 
lons. The married reservists are held back until 
the others have gone to the front. This system is 
likely to be an economical one, for all the widows 
of soldiers killed in the war will have fairly good 
pensions. 

There is probably no more forlorn street in Paris 
at the present moment than the Rue de la Paix, 
the headquarters for dressmakers and milliners. 
Upwards of seventy-five per cent, of the shops are 
closed, and on both sides the street presents a long, 
gray expanse — broken only at intervals — of for- 
bidding iron shutters. 

It is not here, however, that one must look for the 
effect of the war on American business, but rather 
along the Avenue de I'Opera, the Grand Boule- 
vards, and other well-known business streets. 

In the Avenue de I'Opera, at the intersection of 
the Rue Louis-le-Grand, the Paris shop of the 
Singer Sewing Machine Company is closed, while 
on the other side Hanan's boot and shoe store is 
also shut. Just off the avenue, where the Rue des 
Pyramides cuts in, the establishment where the 
Colgate and the Chesebrough companies exploit 
their products likewise presents barred doors. 

[40] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Two conspicuous American establishments re- 
maining open in the Avenue de I'Opera are the 
Butterick shop and Brentano's. 

Mr. Lewis J. Ford, manager of Brentano's, said 
that they had lost a quarter of their employes and 
fifty per cent, of their trade by reason of the war, 
but proposed to keep open just the same. 

In the Grand Boulevards the Remington type- 
writer headquarters are closed, as is the Spalding 
shop for athletic supplies; but the establishments 
of the Walkover Shoe Company, both on the Boule- 
vard des Capucines and the Boulevard des Italiens, 
are open. 

In spite of the hardship entailed upon American 
firms, they are far from complaining. On the con- 
trary, there is a concerted movement among Ameri- 
can business men at this time to assist the French 
in keeping the industrial life of Paris going as nor- 
mally as possible during the war. 

At night Paris is still dark and silent, but in the 
daytime the city is beginning to adapt itself to the 
new state of things. Many places from which the 
men have been called away to serve their country 
are being filled by women. 

Women are becoming tramway conductors, and 
[41] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

there is talk of their working the underground rail- 
way. Girl clerks are taking places in government 
and other offices. 

The unusual state of things prevailing in Paris is 
the cause of many picturesque scenes. This morn- 
ing there was an unwonted sight of a hundred 
cows being driven by herdsmen of rustic appearance 
along the Boulevard des Capucines. A little further 
on, the eye was arrested by a brilliant mass of red 
and blue on the steps of the Madeleine, where a 
number of men of the Second Cuirassiers were at- 
tending special mass. 

*The cheerful tone which prevails among the 
people in the street is very noticeable. All faces are 
smiling and give the impression of a holiday crowd 
out enjoying themselves at the national fete, an 
impression which is reinforced by the gay display 
of bunting in most of the streets in the center of 
Paris. 

A remarkable sight is the Rue du Croissant in the 
afternoon, at the time when the evening newspapers 
are printed. The unusual number of papers sold 
in the streets has brought thousands of boys, girls, 
women, and old men from the outlying districts of 
the city. 

[42] 




Photo, by Paul Thompson. 

Woman replacing man in traffic work. 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

There are thousands of them eagerly awaiting 
the appearance of the Presse, IntransigeanU and 
other papers. The narrow, picturesque old street 
is one seething mass of human beings. Hundreds 
also wait in the Rue Montmartre. As they wait, 
they pass the time by playing cards or dice. 

Many industries are severely affected owing to 
the absence of men. One of them is the laundry 
industry, which is unable to deliver washing, owing 
to the want of vehicles and drivers. In conse- 
quence, many Parisians have now adopted the 
soft collar. No one at this hour pays attention to 
questions of toilette or personal elegance. 

However, no one dreams of complaining of lack 
of comfort. All want to do their best to help the 
national cause, in any way they can. The warmth 
of patriotic feeling is magnificent. 

Already it is proposed to name streets in Paris 
after Samain, the young Alsatian who was shot in 
Metz for French sympathies, and after the cure of 
the frontier village who was murdered by German 
soldiers because he rang his church bells to give the 
alarm of their approach. Never did a nation rise 
to repel attack with a deeper resentment or a more 
vigorous elan. 

[43] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

One effect of the war has been to anathematize 
the name of Germany. The Villette district, 
through its local representatives, has presented a 
petition to the City Council praying that the name 
Rue d'AUemagne shall be changed to that of Rue 
Jean Jaures, in honor of the assassinated socialist 
leader. 

Scenes of extraordinary enthusiasm marked the 
departure of the Fifth Regiment of Line from 
the Pepiniere barracks to-day. Long before six 
o'clock, the appointed hour of departure, the Avenue 
Portalis and the steps of the Church of Saint- 
Philippe du Roule were black with people. 

At six o'clock the bugles sounded, the iron gates 
opened, and the regiment, with fixed bayonets, 
swung out into the road amid ringing cheers and 
shouts of "Vive la France!" As the standard- 
bearer passed, the cheer increased in volume, and 
men stood with bared heads and waved their hats 
in the air. The regiment entrained last night for 
the Belgian frontier. 



[44] 



Friday y August 7. 

This is the sixth day of mobilization. Steady- 
rain during the morning. Temperature at five p. m. 
16 degrees centigrade. 

Disembarking of British troops in France has 
begun, and the greatest enthusiasm is reported from 
the northern departments. I went to see the Due 
de Loubet this morning and met there Mr. De 
Courcey Forbes, who told me that the French mo- 
bilization was working like clock-work two days 
ahead of scheduled time. He said that about a 
hundred Germans and Austrians had been arrested 
as spies. They were tried by court martial at 
eleven o'clock yesterday morning, and fifty -nine of 
them, who were found guilty, were shot at Vin- 
cennes at four o'clock the same afternoon. 

It subsequently turned out that these spies had 
not been shot, after all, but had been imprisoned 
and kept in close confinement. 

When Baron Shoen left the German Embassy in 
Paris, he was treated with great courtesy and es- 
corted by the Chef de Protocol, M. William Martin, 

[45] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

to the railway station, where he was provided with a 
special train de luxe with a restaurant car. Upon 
the arrival at the frontier, the Germans actually 
seized and confiscated the train ! Reports of French 
families returning from Germany show that not 
only individual Frenchmen but French diploma- 
tists and Russian diplomatists have been greatly 
insulted in Germany, especially in Berlin and 
Munich. 

Contrast with this the attitude of a crowd which 
I saw to-day watching about a thousand Germans 
and Austrians tramp to a railway station, where 
they were entrained for their concentration camp. 
They marched between soldiers with fixed bayonets 
ready to protect them. But the crowd watched 
them almost sympathetically, with not an insult, 
not a jeer. 

The mobilization in France has caused an extraor- 
dinary increase in the number of marriages con- 
tracted at the various Paris town halls. From 
morning till night the mayors and their assistants 
have been kept busy uniting couples who would be 
separated the same day or the next, when the hus- 
band joined his regiment. At the bare announce- 
ment of the possibility of war, the marriage oflSices 

[46] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

at the town halls were literally taken by assault. 
As there was no time to be lost, arrangements were 
made by the chief officials to accept the minimum 
of documentary proofs of identity in all cases where 
the bridegrooms were called upon to serve their 
country. The other papers required by the law 
will be put in later. 

The statistics of the first five days of the mobili- 
zation show that one hundred and eighty-one mar- 
riages were performed a day as against the ordinary 
figure of one hundred and ten. In the suburbs the 
increase is even greater, and a notable fact, both in 
Paris and outside, is that the largest number of 
marriages took place in the most populous districts. 
In the eleventh arrondissement the ordinary figures 
were trebled. All wedding parties wear little 
French, English, Russian, and Belgian flags. 

General Michel, Military Governor of Paris, has 
issued an order formally forbidding any one to 
leave or enter Paris either on foot or in any kind of 
vehicle between the hours of six at night and six in 
the morning. 

At a meeting of the executive committee of the 
American Ambulance of Paris, it was announced 
that more than thirty thousand francs had been 

[47] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

received, exclusive of the sums obtained by the 
women's committee, and apart from the promises 
of larger subscriptions. 

Up to yesterday morning twelve physicians and 
surgeons and twice that number of nurses had vol- 
unteered to assist the regular staff of the American 
Hospital in the work of caring for wounded French 
soldiers. Among the physicians and surgeons who 
have volunteered are Doctor Joseph Blake, of New 
York; Doctor Charles Roland, formerly a surgeon 
of the United States army, and Doctor George B. 
Hayes, of Paris. 

The women's committee held a meeting at the 
American Embassy, when further subscriptions 
were received, that brought the total amount ob- 
tained by this committee up to eighteen thousand 
francs. 

The executive committee now consists of Mrs. 
Laurence V. Benet, Mrs. H. Herman Harjes, Mrs. 
Potter Palmer, Mrs. Charles Carroll of CarroUton, 
Mrs. George Munroe, Mrs. Edith Wharton, Mrs. 
William Jay, Mrs. Tuck, Mrs. C. C. Cuyler and 
Mrs. Elbert H. Gary. 

I was to-day with an American journalist who 
has an apartment in the Rue Hardy at Versailles. 

[48] 




Photo. Henri Manuel, Paris. 

General Victor Constant Michel, Military Governor of Paris 
until August 27, 1914. 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

He is a single man, and his house is a fairly roomy 
one. The other day he was waited upon by a mili- 
tary officer, who told him that sixty thousand sol- 
diers were to be billeted on the inhabitants — 
making one to every man, woman, and child in the 
city of the " Roi Soleil." They would need some 
part of his house — which, by the way, was formerly 
the domicile of Louis David, the great painter of 
Napoleon — and he would be glad if he could make 
arrangements to lodge four soldiers. My friend at 
once consented, and out of the five rooms he has 
kept two to himself. In the other three are billeted 
a cavalry officer and four soldiers. The only thing 
the American has had to complain of up to now is 
that every morning at six o'clock the officer wakes 
him up by playing the " Pilgrims' Chorus " from 
" Tannhauser " on the piano. 

Germans are still found in strange places, con- 
sidering the fact that the French are at war with 
them. I saw one man ask for his papers at the Gare 
de I'Est this afternoon, where with incredible assur- 
ance he was watching the entraining of French 
troops. He was led away between two policemen, 
and ought to feel thankful that the crowd did not 
get hold of him. He might have shared the same 

[49] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

fate as that which befell one of his imprudent com- 
patriots last Sunday at Clarendon. It was the day 
after mobilization had been declared, and the Ger- 
man knew that he must leave the country. But in 
a swaggering mood he said he would not leave until 
he had killed at least one of these condemned 
Frenchmen. His words were reported, and he fled 
into an entry and made his way into an adjoining 
house, where the crowd lost sight of him. When 
he emerged a cavalry escort protected him against 
the mad people who wanted to lynch him, and 
bundled him into a cab. He had been very badly 
handled, and his face was streaming with blood. 
He drove away as fast as the horse could gallop, 
but bystanders went after him, climbed up behind 
at the rear of the cab, and shot him dead through 
the little window. 

Foreigners who know the women of France, who 
have lived in the country, have always given them 
a very high place as wives, mothers, and managers. 
But to-day they merit the admiration of the world 
more than ever. 

I have seen them taking farewell of their hus- 
bands, sons, and brothers during the past few days, 
and nothing could surpass the courage with which 

[50] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

they have sent them off to the war. They have 
struggled bravely to conceal their emotion, and 
only after the men have gone have the women given 
their feelings free play. An American lady who has 
seen some of these departures told me the other day 
that the sight of the children clinging to their 
fathers' hands so as to prevent them going away 
to the war was one of the saddest sights she had ever 
witnessed. 



[51] 



Saturday, August 8, 

Seventh day of mobilization. Ideal summer 
weather. Temperatm-e, 16 centigrade, with light 
westerly breezes. The moon is now full — a jfirst- 
rate thing for the British fleet in search of German 
ships; also useful for French military operations, 
and for lighting the streets of Paris, thereby en- 
abling economy in gas. 

The news of the capture of Altkirch, in Alsace, 
by the French troops, reached Paris at about five 
o'clock this afternoon. It spread like wildfire 
through the city, and a rush was immediately made 
to buy the special editions of the newspapers an- 
nouncing the victory. 

To those who are not familiar with the Parisian 
character, the comparative silence with which the 
news was received came as a surprise. There was 
no enthusiastic outbreak of popular sentiment, no 
cheering, no throwing into the air of hats or sticks. 

After forty-three years of weary waiting, the 
Tricolor floated over an Alsatian town. " At last! " 
That was the word that was heard on every side. 

[52] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

The moment was too solemn to Frenchmen to allow 
them to say more. 

The existence of war will be further brought home 
to Parisians on Monday by the disappearance of 
the morning breakfast rolls. In consequence of the 
great number of bakers now serving with the colors, 
it has been decided to simplify bread making in 
Paris so as to ensure the supply being regular, and 
consequently the only kinds obtainable after to-day 
will be those known as boulot and demi-fendu. 

The regulation of the milk supply is being rapidly 
organized. Those households in which milk is a 
necessity, for children, invalids, or the old, can 
obtain certificates giving them the preference. On 
the day after application for these certificates they 
are delivered, together with full particulars as to 
the amount, quantity, price, and place of purchase. 

The position of other food supplies is excellent. 
The only difficulty is to get them delivered. House- 
keepers must fetch their bread and milk if they 
want them to time. 

Few articles of food have reached the maximum 
price laid down for them by the authorities. Fresh 
vegetables and fruit are very cheap. The only im- 
portant articles which the shops have difficulty in 

[53] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

supplying are sugar, condensed milk, and dried 
cereals. 

During the past week about three thousand papers 
of nationality were issued at the American Con- 
sulate-general, and some sixteen hundred at the 
Embassy. This number may be taken as approxi- 
mately coinciding with the number of American 
tourists now in Paris, as virtually all of these had 
to secure papers of nationality in order to register 
with the police, 

Post-office regulations are still very strict. Fol- 
lowing the discovery of numerous spies in and about 
Paris, General Michel has issued an order strictly 
prohibiting conversations on the telephone in any 
other language but French. When this order is not 
obeyed, the communication is immediately cut off. 



[54] 



Sunday, August 9. 

Eighth day of mobilization. Hot summer day, 
with light southwesterly breezes. Temperature at 
five p. M. 26 degrees centigrade. 

This may be regarded as the first Sunday of the 
war. Last Sunday was a day of rush and clamor 
in Paris. All shops were open and filled with eager 
customers; the streets were crammed with shout- 
ing crowds and hurrying vehicles; everything was 
forgotten in the outburst of national enthusiasm. 
In the afternoon and evening the city was the 
scene of riots and pillage. 

To-day Paris presented a strong contrast. The 
news of French and Belgian successes at the front 
had cheered the hearts of Parisians, and, in spite 
of the strange aspect of the boulevards, denuded of 
their gay terraces, and of most of the ordinary 
means of locomotion, the city had something of a 
holiday aspect about it. 

In the afternoon the city was crowded with 
promenaders dressed in Sunday garb. The pro- 
portion of women to men has largely increased, but 

[55] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

the arrival of numerous reservists from the prov- 
inces caused Paris to appear, temporarily at least, 
somewhat less empty of men. 

Indeed, the aspect of the city very much re- 
sembled that of any Sunday in summer, when the 
city is normally far from crowded. 

I met MacAlpin of the Daily Mail, who said to 
me: 

" I took a walk in the Bois de Boulogne yester- 
day afternoon. In a lonely alley I was stopped by 
three cyclist policemen. They asked for my papers. 
Fortunately, I had with me my passport and the 
* permission to remain ' issued to me as a foreigner. 
If I had happened to have left these in another coat, 
I should have been arrested. 

" The policemen told me those were their orders. 
They added confidentially that they were looking 
for Germans. After this I saw many more cyclists 
on the same errand. They are hunting the woods 
systematically, because many Germans of suspicious 
character have taken refuge there. 

" I rang up a friend on the telephone, and began, 
as usual: ' Hullo, is that you.'* ' I was immediately 
told by the girl at the exchange that * speaking in 
foreign languages was not permitted.' * Unless you 

[56] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

speak in French,' she said, * I shall cut you off at 
once.' I suppose she listened to what we were say- 
ing all the time. 

" I went into a post-office to send a telegram to 
my wife. * You must get it authorized at a police 
office,' I was told. Not the simplest private mes- 
sage can be accepted until it has passed the censor." 

No one is to be allowed from now on to have a 
complete wireless installation in Paris. Many 
people have set up instruments, some for amuse- 
ment, some, it appears, for sinister purposes. No 
one may send messages now, though they are al- 
lowed to keep their receivers. In order to hear 
the messages which come through from Russia, the 
Eiffel Tower station, it is explained, needs " dead 
silence " in the air. 

It was even announced two days ago that no one 
would be allowed to pass in or out of Paris between 
six at night and six in the morning. But this caused 
such inconvenience to so many people that the 
Military Governor of Paris was asked by the police 
to rescind his order, which he at once did. 

The tenors and baritones and sopranos of the 
Opera and other theaters are going round singing 
in the courtyards for the benefit of the Red Cross. 

[57] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

The Salon is turned into a military stable. Where 
the pictures hung, horses are munching their hay. 
The Comedie Frangaise is to become a day nursery 
for the children of women who, in the absence of 
their husbands, are obliged to go out to work. 

Mr.^Herrick told me this afternoon that a few 
days ago the Telegraph Office refused his cipher 
cables to Washington. The Ambassador at once 
protested at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where 
the Minister, M. Doumergue, forthwith gave orders 
authorizing the telegraph office to accept his cipher 
messages. The Austrian Ambassador, who is still 
here, is not permitted to communicate by cipher 
telegrams with his Government. This is quite 
natural. 



[58] 



Monday^ August 10. 

Ninth day of mobilization. Hot, sunny weather. 
Temperature at five p. m. 29 degrees centigrade. 
Light southerly breeze. 

Depicted on all faces this morning is anxious but 
confident expectation, for the public are conscious 
that a desperate encounter between two millions of 
men is impending in Belgium and on the Alsace- 
Lorraine border from Liege to Colmar. 

The French capital is, at the present moment, a 
city of strange contrasts. Mothers, wives, sisters, 
and brides were last week red-eyed from the sorrow 
of parting. Now these same women have decorated 
their windows with bunting and have no thought 
other than of working as best they may to help the 
national cause. 

In the streets, the shrill voices of children pipe 
the latest news from the front; small girls cry grim 
details of the war. 

All prisoners charged with light offenses who are 
mobilizable have been allowed to go to the front 
to rehabilitate themselves. The central prison of 

[59] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Fresnes, which ten days ago contained nine hundred 
criminals, has now only two hundred and fifty left. 

And all the time Paris lives an every-day, hum- 
drum life, makes the best of everything, and never 
complains. 

Day by day the aspect of the streets becomes 
more normal, for the reason that more and more 
vehicles are freed from military service and can now 
resume their ordinary duties of transporting the 
public. Pending the return of the motor-omnibuses, 
a service of char-a-bancs has been started on the 
boulevards, which reminds Parisians of the days of 
the popular " Madeleine-Bastille " omnibus. 

Diplomatic relations between France and Austria- 
Hungary were broken off to-day. War however 
has not been declared between France and Austria. 

I met to-day M. Hedeman, the correspondent of 
the Matiriy who recently witnessed in Berlin the 
arrival of Emperor William and the Crown Prince, 
which he compared to the departure of Napoleon 
III for Sedan in 1870. We were talking at the 
Ministry of War, where I also met the Marquis 
Robert de Flers, the well-known dramatist and 
editor of the Figaro, and M. Lazare Weiler, deputy. 
M. Hedeman told me that two days after the dec- 

[ 60 ] 




The Statue of Strasbourg, after the capture of Altkirch in 
Alsace by French troops. 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

laration of war a skirmisli took place near the village 
of Genaville in the department of Meurthe-et- 
Moselle, between French custom-house officials and 
a squadron of German cavalry. The commander 
of the German detachment was shot in the stomach, 
fell to the ground, and was captured. He was 
Lieutenant Baron Marshall von Bieberstein, son of 
the former German Ambassador at Constantinople. 
A French lieutenant of gendarmes helped the pris- 
oner to his feet. Lieutenant von Bieberstein, who 
was mortally wounded, said: "Thank you, gentle- 
men! I have done my duty in serving my country, 
just as you are serving your own! " He then died. 
M. Charles Humbert, senator of the Meuse, gave 
the helmet and sabre that had been worn by Lieu- 
tenant Marshall von Bieberstein to the editor of the 
Matin. 



[61] 



Tuesday, August 11. 

Tenth day of mobilization. Warm, sunny 
weather, with light northerly breezes. Tempera- 
ture at five p. M. 27 degrees centigrade. 

Expectation of the great battle believed to be 
forthcoming to the north of Liege dominates the 
situation here. 

I breakfasted to-day at the restaurant Paillard 
with M. Max-Lyon and M. Arthur Meyer, man- 
ager of the Gaulois. Mile. Zinia Brozia, of the 
Opera Comique, who remains in Paris, was also of 
our party. All sorts of war rumors were current, 
but as M. Messimy, the minister of war, has 
given to M. Arthur Meyer the assurance that 
while the news given out " might not be all the 
news, it would nevertheless be invariably true news/* 
confidence in the official communications to the 
press, which are the only authentic source of war 
news, is unshaken. The French Ministry of War, 
in its official communique of the military situation, 
issued at 11.30 this evening, states that the French 
troops are in contact with the enemy along almost 

[62] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

the entire front. The only fighting that has taken 
place, however, has been engagements between the 
outposts, in which the French soldiers everywhere 
showed irresistible courage and ardor. 

A Uhlan who was captured near Liege on Satur- 
day was found to be the bearer of a map marked 
with the proposed marches of the German army. 
According to this map, the Germans were to be in 
Brussels on August 3 and at Lille on August 5. 



[63] 



Wednesday, August 12. 

Eleventh day of mobilization. Hot weather, 
with light northerly breeze. Temperature at five 
p. M. 29 degrees centigrade. 

Breakfasted with M. Galtier at the Cercle Ar- 
tistique et Litteraire, Rue Volney. Several mem- 
bers of the club had just arrived from various 
watering-places. One of them, who came from 
Evian-les-Bains, said that he was sixty-two hours 
en route. The trains stop at every station so that 
they have uniform speed, thus rendering accidents 
almost out of the question. Only third-class tickets 
are sold, but these admit to all places. 

It seems certain that the first part of the German 
plan — namely to come with a lightning-like, over- 
whelming crash through Belgium, via Liege and 
Namur — has failed. But the battle of millions 
along the vast front of two hundred and fifty miles 
between Liege and Verdun has opened, and the 
opposing armies are in touch with each other. 
Every one in Paris has confidence in the final result. 

There is news of stupendous importance in the 
[64] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

official announcement that Germany is employing 
the bulk of her twenty-six army corps against 
France and Belgium between Liege and Luxem- 
burg. The disappearance of the German first line 
troops from the Russian frontier is now explained. 
By flinging this immense force upon France, Ger- 
many gains an advantage of numbers. How will 
she use it.f* 

Paris seems to have seen very little, after all, of 
the mobilization. Most people may have seen an 
odd regiment pass, or perhaps numbers of horses 
obviously requisitioned. But they realize none of 
the feverish bustle of the mobilization centers. 

Versailles relieves Paris of all this, and Versailles, 
since the first day of August, has been amazing. 
The broad avenues of the sleepy old town have been 
packed from side to side with men in uniform, men 
only partly in uniform, or men carrying their uni- 
forms under their arm. At the first glance there 
seemed nothing but confusion, but the appearance 
was misleading, for at the Chantiers Station train- 
load after trainload of troops — men, guns, horses, 
material — have been despatched, taking the route 
of the Grande Ceinture Railway around Paris to 
Noisy-le-Sec, and on to the Est system. 

[65] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

At Versailles one realizes very fully that France 
is at war. For there are lines and lines of guns 
awaiting teams and drivers, hundreds upon hun- 
dreds of provision wagons, rows and rows of light 
draught-horses, many being shod in the street, 
while out along the road to Saint-Cyr, in a broad 
pasturage stretching perhaps half a mile, are thou- 
sands of magnificent cattle tightly packed together. 
They are to feed some of France's fighting force. 

And at Saint-Cyr there is unheard-of activity. 
The second army flying corps is being organized. 
It consists of nearly eighty certificated volunteer 
pilots, including Garros, Chevillard, Verrier, Cham- 
pel, Audemars, and many more well-known names. 
There are others than French airmen in the corps. 
Audemars is Swiss, while there are also an English- 
man, a Peruvian, and a Dane. These men are all 
waiting eagerly the order to move. 

Those at the American Embassy who are in 
charge of advancing funds to Americans in need of 
them had their busiest day since the work began, 
on Monday. Forty-six persons received a total of 
3,514 francs. 

The total amount of money distributed for the 
three days has been 8,869 francs. This has gone 

[66] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

to 105 persons, which gives an average of the modest 
sum of 84 francs apiece, or less than seventeen 
dollars. 

At least nine out of ten of the applicants are vir- 
tually without bankable credit of any kind. One 
man gave as security — because the money is ad- 
vanced as a loan, not as a gift — a cheque on a 
Chicago bank, but he admitted that the cheque 
was not negotiable, as it was drawn on one of the 
Lorrimer banks of Chicago, which had gone into 
the hands of receivers since he left for Europe. 

Callers included a number of negro song and 
dance artists who had come to the end of their re- 
sources. 

The work of distributing money is entirely in 
the hands of American army oflScers, and they in- 
vestigate every case which has not already been in- 
vestigated by the relief committee appointed by the 
Ambassador. Major Spencer Cosby, the military 
attache at the Embassy, is the treasurer of the fund. 
Investigations are made by Captain Frank Parker, 
assisted by Lieutenants William H. Jouett and H. 
F. Loomis. The cashier is Captain Francis H. Pope, 
with Lieutenants Francis W. Honey cutt and B. B. 
Somervell as assistants. 

[67] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

When the history of the great war is written, a 
very honorable place will have to be reserved for 
the women of Paris. In the work of caring for the 
destitute and unemployed of their own sex, and 
anticipating the needs of great numbers of wounded 
men, they are showing extraordinary energy. Every 
day new and special philanthropic institutions are 
started and carried on by women in Paris. 

Comtesse Grefifulhe has taken in hand the pro- 
vision of food and lodging for convalescent soldiers, 
so as to relieve the pressure on public and private 
hospitals and ambulances. Mme. Couyba, wife of 
the Minister of Labor, is arranging for the supply 
of free food to girls and women out of work. Mar- 
quise de Dion, Mme. Le Menuet and other ladies 
are opening temporary workshops where women 
can obtain employment at rates that will enable 
them to tide over the hard times before them. 

The Union des Femmes de France is doing won- 
derful work in the organization of hospitals and in 
sending out nurses to wherever they are most likely 
to be needed. 

One of the finest examples of energy and devotion 
is being set by the wife of the Military Governor of 
Paris, Mme. Michel. She has identified herself 

[68] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

specially with what may be briefly described as 
" saving the babies." Her idea is to see that the 
coming generation shall not be sacrificed and that 
expectant mothers whose natural defenders have 
gone to the war shall not feel themselves forsaken. 

Mme. Michel is the president of a committee of 
ladies who have undertaken, each in her own dis- 
trict, to seek out needy mothers, to see that they 
and their children receive assistance, and to give 
them all possible moral support. 

Mme. Michel is putting in about eighteen hours' 
work a day in the discharge of her duties. She is 
up at daylight, and after dealing with a mass of 
correspondence, is out in her motor-car before seven 
o'clock, on a round of the various mairies, to see 
that the permanent maternity office, which it has 
been found necessary to start in every one of these 
municipal centers, is doing its work properly. 

At eleven o'clock she is back at the big house 
which is the official residence of her husband, close 
to the Invalides, and is presiding over a committee 
meeting. She lunches in about a quarter of an 
hour, and plunges into more committee work, which 
usually lasts until well after four o'clock. 

The latter part of the afternoon is taken up in 
[69] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

another tour of inspection, dinner is a movable 
feast to be observed if there happens to be time for 
it, and then there is another pile of letters and tele- 
grams a foot high to be gone through and answered; 
and so to bed, very late. 



[70] 



Thursday^ August 13. 

Twelfth day of mobilization. Hot, sultry- 
weather with faint northeasterly wind. Ther- 
mometer at five p. M. 30 degrees centigrade. 

Breakfasted to-day at the restaurant Paillard 
and met there M. Arthur Meyer, M. Max-Lyon, 
Maitre Charles Philippe of the French Bar, and 
Mr. Slade, manager of the Paris branch of the 
Equitable Trust Company. War! War! War! 
was the subject of the conversation, but no real 
news from the front except of outpost fighting, with 
success for the French and the Belgians. Gabriele 
d*Annunzio's flaming " Ode for the Latin Resur- 
rection ", published to-day in the Figaro, is evi- 
dently intended to excite Italians to seize an oppor- 
tunity to abandon neutrality and join France and 
the Allied Powers against Austria, and thereby win 
back the " Italia Irredenta." D'Annunzio invokes 
the Austrian oppression of bygone days in Mantua 
and Verona, calls Austria the " double-headed Vul- 
ture '*, and summons all true Italians to take the 
war-path of revenge. ** Italy ! Thine hour has 

[71] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

struck for Barbarians call thee to arms ! Vae VictisI 
Remember Mantua I " 

After lunch I met Mrs. Edith Wharton, who had 
made some valuable mental and written notes of 
what she has seen in Paris. She is about to leave 
for England. 

So sure were the Germans of advancing rapidly 
into France that they had decided to complete their 
mobilization on French territory. According to the 
Figaro, an Alsatian doctor, who came to France on 
the outbreak of hostilities, had been ordered to join 
the German army at Verdun on the third day of 
mobilization. A German tailor, living in Paris, had 
instructions to join at Rheims on the thirteenth 
day. 

Although the early closing hour of all cafes and 
restaurants causes some inconvenience, it is being 
taken in good part by Parisians. It has not the 
slightest effect on the habits of the city as far as 
keeping late hours is concerned — no power on 
earth could make the Parisian go to bed at nine 
o'clock. 

People cannot spend their evenings in the cafes, 
so they spend them either strolling or sitting about 
in the streets, smoking and chatting for hours. 

[72] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

But the new closing hour has had the effect 
expected by the authorities. It has made Paris the 
most orderly city in the world. The police are, 
however, kept very busy, for the regulation as to 
carrying papers is being rigorously enforced, and 
the belated pedestrian is invariably challenged by a 
cavalry patrol or by the ordinary police. If his 
answers are unsatisfactory, he undergoes a more 
searching examination at the police station. 

Paris has become a paradise for cyclists. Owing 
to the lack of transportation facilities, hundreds of 
Parisians have taken to using bicycles as a practical 
mode of locomotion, and the city now swarms with 
them. This state of things is not, however, likely 
to last very long, for every day brings more vehicles 
back to the capital, and every day brings a further 
step towards a more normal situation. 

Some cars requisitioned will hardly be returned, — 
as is evidenced by the experience of Mrs. Julia 
Newell and her sister. Miss Josephine Pomeroy, 
two Americans just returned to Paris. 

Before the war broke out. Miss Pomeroy left 
Frankfort by automobile, but in passing through 
Metz her $5,000 Delaunay-Belleville machine was 
confiscated by the Germans, and her footman and 

[73] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

chauffeur, who were Frenchmen, were put into 
prison. All her luggage was lost. No attention 
was paid to her protests that she was an American 
citizen. 



[74] 



Friday y August 14-. 

Thirteenth day of mobilization. Another hot, 
stifling day with thermometer (centigrade) 31 de- 
grees at five p. M. 

Lunched at the Cercle Artistique et -Litteraire, 
Rue Volney. Only the old servants remain. The 
club is no longer open to non-member dinner guests. 
The price of meals is reduced to three and a half 
francs for lunch, and to four francs for dinner, in- 
cluding wine, mineral water, beer, or cider. There 
is great scarcity of small change. To alleviate this, 
ivory bridge or poker counters, marked fifty cen- 
timeSf and one franc, are given in change and circu- 
late for payment of meals, drinks, etc. 

Greater military activity is noticed in the streets 
than for some days past. Many movements of 
troops took place all day, and long convoys of the 
ambulance corps, including several complete field 
hospital staffs, were seen driving and marching 
through the city. 

This was due to the fact that within the last few 
days large bodies of the territorial forces had con- 

[75] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

centrated in the environs, notably at Versailles, 
from whence they left for the front. 

Early this morning certain districts of Paris 
literally swarmed with soldiers of the territorial 
reserve. 

Although most of them are married men and 
fathers, they display as fine a spirit as their younger 
comrades. They may, perhaps, show less enthu- 
siasm, but that they are quite as calm is shown by 
the fact that a number of them spent the last hours 
before their departure fishing in the Ourcq Canal. 

A detachment of naval reserves has been brought 
to Paris to assist the police and the Municipal 
Guards in assuring order in the capital. The men 
wear the uniform of fusiliers marins, and cor- 
respond to the marines in the British navy. They 
will be placed under the orders of the Prefect of 
Police. 

Mr. A. Beaumont of the Daily Telegraph has had 
a very narrow escape from being shot as a spy. He 
is a naturalized American citizen, but was born in 
Alsace. When the present war broke out, he started 
in a motor-car to the front without the necessary 
passes and permits. He circulated about and ob- 
tained good and useful news for his paper. The 

[76] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

other day, however, he was brought to a standstill 
in Belgium and was arrested. The Belgian authori- 
ties asked at the French headquarters: " What 
shall we do with him? " The reply was: " Send 
him on here to headquarters, and if he proves to be 
a spy he will be court-martialed and shot." This 
arose from the confusion of names. It seems that 
the doings of a German spy named Bremont, of 
Alsatian birth, had become known to the military 
authorities in France and Belgium. Beaumont 
stoutly asserted that he was the victim of mistaken 
identity, and only after very great difficulty, and 
with the exceptional efforts of Mr. Herrick and of 
Sir Francis Bertie, the British Ambassador, was he 
able to establish his true identity, when he was 
released by the French Headquarter Staff, and 
handed over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Arrivals of detachments of German prisoners con- 
tinue to be reported from various parts of France. 
A Prussian officer, speaking French fluently, was 
among a convoy of prisoners at Versailles yesterday. 
The officer, on seeing some French territorials march 
past, singing the " Marseillaise ", remarked to his 
guard: " What a disillusion awaits us! " 

[77] 



Saturday, August 15. 
{Feast of the Assumption.) 

Fourteenth day of mobilization. Heavy thun- 
der storms set in at three a. m. Showers followed 
until one o'clock; cloudy afternoon with variable 
wind. Thermometer at five p. m. 22 degrees centi- 
grade. 

Huge crowds lined the streets leading from the 
Gare du Nord to the British Embassy, to welcome 
Field-marshal Sir John French, Commander of the 
British expeditionary force, who came to visit 
President Poincare before taking command of his 
army. At quarter to one, three motor-cars rapidly 
approached the Embassy. In the second I could 
get a glimpse of Sir John in his gray-brown khaki 
uniform. His firm, trim appearance and his clear 
blue eyes, genial smile, and sunburnt face made an 
excellent impression, and he was greeted with loud 
cheers. He had a long talk with M. Messimy, 
Minister of War. 

I am having a very busy time trying to obtain 
permission for American war correspondents to 

[78] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

accompany the French armies in the field. Mr. 
Richard Harding Davis and Mr. D. Gerald Morgan 
have arrived in London on the Lusitania from New 
York to act as war correspondents in the field with 
the French forces. As president of the Association 
of the Foreign Press, and as Paris correspondent of 
the New York Tribune, I made special applications at 
the Ministry of Foreign Ajffairs and at the War 
Office for authority for them to act as war corre- 
spondents for the New York Tribune. These ap- 
plications were endorsed by Ambassador Herrick, 
who also did everything possible to secure permis- 
sion for them to take the field. 

The official regulations for war correspondents 
are much more severe, however, than those enforced 
during the Japanese and Turkish wars. In the first 
place, only Frenchmen and correspondents of one 
of the belligerent nationalities, that is to say French, 
British, Russian, Belgian, or Servian, are allowed 
to act as war correspondents. Frenchmen may 
represent foreign papers. All despatches must be 
written in the French language and must be sent 
by the military post, and only after having been 
formally approved by the military censor. No 
despatches can be sent by wire or by wireless teleg- 

[79] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

raphy. No correspondent can circulate in the 
zone of operations unless accompanied by an officer 
especially designated for that purpose. All private 
as well as professional correspondence must pass 
through the hands of the censor. War correspond- 
ents of whatever nationality will, during their so- 
journ with the army, be subject to martial law, and 
if they infringe regulations by trying to communi- 
cate news not especially authorized by the official 
censors, will be dealt with by the laws of espionage 
in war time. These are merely a few among the 
many rigid prescriptions governing war corre- 
spondents. 

I talked with several editors of Paris papers on 
the subject, notably with M. Arthur Meyer of the 
Gaulois, Marquis Robert de Flers of the Figaro, 
and M. Georges Clemengeau of the Homme Libre. 
They one and all expressed the opinion that war 
correspondents would enjoy exceptional opportuni- 
ties, enabling them to get mental snap-shots of pic- 
turesque events and to acquire valuable first-hand 
information for writing magazine articles or books, 
but that from a newspaper standpoint there would 
be insurmountable difficulties preventing them from 
getting their " news to market ", that is to say, in 

[80] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

getting their despatches on the wires for their 
respective papers. However, Mr. Herrick is doing 
everything he can to obtain all possible facilities 
for Mr. Davis and for Mr. Morgan. 

Almost every day brings some fresh measure in 
the interest of the public. Yesterday the Prefect 
of Police issued an order forbidding the sale of 
absinthe in the cafes under pain of immediate 
closure, and again called the attention of motorists 
to the regulations which they are daily breaking. 

The sanitary authorities, too, have their hands 
full. So far, however, the present circumstances 
have had no influence on the state of health in Paris. 
The weekly bulletin published by the municipality 
shows that the death and disease figures are quite 
normal. 

Mr. Bernard J. Schoninger, chairman of the com- 
mittee which has recently been formed by the 
American Chamber of Commerce in Paris with the 
object of settling difficult questions which may 
arise in Franco-American commercial relations, 
states that his committee is collaborating with the 
ladies' committee founded by the wife of the Ameri- 
can Ambassador to assist wounded soldiers. In a 
few days this committee collected one hundred and 

[81] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

seventy-five thousand francs. His own committee 
has issued an appeal to all Chambers of Commerce 
in the United States, and he trusts that considerable 
funds will be forthcoming for the ambulance corps 
created under the auspices of the American Hospital 
in Paris. The Minister for War has granted the use 
of the Lycee Pasteur, where it is hoped to establish 
an ambulance of two hundred beds, which may 
later be increased to one thousand. 

The committee has also taken up the question 
of the payment of customs duties on American 
imports into France, and Mr. Schoninger states that 
he has met with the greatest kindness and that the 
French customs authorities have agreed to accept 
guarantees from various commercial syndicates 
instead of actual immediate cash payments. This 
will obviate difficulties occasioned by the refusal 
of French banking establishments, acting under the 
terms of the moratorium, in handing over funds 
which they have on deposit. 



[82] 



Sunday, August 16. 

Fifteenth day of mobilization. Gray, cloudy 
day with occasional showers and westerly wind. 
Thermometer at five p. m. 17 degrees centigrade. 

I drove out in the Bois de Boulogne after lunch 
with the Due de Loubat. The Bois was rather de- 
serted; only a few couples were strolling about or 
seated on benches reading newspapers. Went to 
the Cercle des Patineurs, where fences were being 
put up on the lawns to enclose sheep and oxen to 
provision Paris. In the tennis court we saw about 
two hundred Kabyles from Algeria, who had been 
found astray in Paris. They sleep on straw beds 
in the tennis court and are provided with rations. 
They are all men, and will be drafted into the Al- 
gerian reserves. 

Madame Waddington, formerly Miss King of 
New York, and widow of the late William Henry 
Waddington, senator, and member of several French 
Cabinets, and one of the French delegates to the 
Berlin Conference in 1878, remains in Paris, and is 
stopping with her sister. Miss King, at her apart- 

[83] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

ment in the Rue de La Tremouille. Madame Wad- 
dington was a great friend of the late King Edward 
VII, who never passed through Paris without call- 
ing to see her and lunching with her and her family. 
Madame Waddington, who is in excellent health 
and spirits, told me that the feeling was so strong 
against the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, Count 
Szecsen de Temerin, during the last few days of his 
stay here after hostilities had begun with Germany, 
that one evening, as he was about to sit down to 
dinner with his fellow diplomatist, M. Alexandre 
Lahovary, the Roumanian Minister, at the Cercle 
de rUnion, which is one of the most select and re- 
stricted clubs of Paris, the secretary of the club 
requested M. Lahovary to announce to the Austrian 
Ambassador that the committee of the club ex- 
pressed the wish that he should no longer take his 
meals at the club nor appear on the premises, be- 
cause his presence under prevailing political con- 
ditions rendered the Austrian Ambassador an " un- 
desirable personage." The Austrian Ambassador, 
who had just ordered an excellent bottle of Mouton 
Rothschild claret for his dinner, at once left the 
club. 

Parisians flocked in thousands to-day to the 
[84] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

basilica of the Sacre Coeur of Montmartre, where 
special services were held. This church was planned 
and built in expiation of the war of 1870. It was 
finished only a few months ago, and was to have 
been definitely " inaugurated " next month. 

A detachment of about four thousand men of 
the Naval Reserve, most of whom are Bretons, is 
encamped to the north of Paris at Le Bourget, and 
there have been stirring scenes in the little church 
there. It has been crowded with sailors and soldiers 
at every service, for Bretons are among the most 
religious of all peoples of France. 

Abbe Marcade, the cure of Le Bourget, has had 
magnificent congregations. On the Feast of the 
Assumption the Abbe decided to hold Mass in the 
open air. An altar was accordingly set up in a 
large field beside a haystack. Thirty-five hundred 
soldiers attended. At the end, the Abbe, standing 
on a table, preached a sermon in the falling rain. 

These military services at Le Bourget have been 
strikingly picturesque. The Abbe's sermons are 
interrupted from time to time by cheers, as if he 
were making a political speech. His words on 
patriotism and soldiers' duty have been greeted with 
shouts of " Vive la France." Loudest of all was 

[85] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

the applause when he declared that feelings of 
party were now drowned in love for the country. 
In the evening, after the service at which this ser- 
mon was preached, the Abbe dined with the oflficers 
of the regiment and with the socialist mayor of the 
commune, a thing which would have been impos- 
sible in ordinary times. The war has made French- 
men stand together in closer unity than they have 
ever done before. 

One of the strangest changes brought about by 
the war is that of the fashionable race-courses of 
Auteuil and Longchamp. These have been turned 
into large grazing farms for sheep and cattle requi- 
sitioned by the military authorities. Another 
curious requisition is that of all French military 
uniforms in the wardrobes of the Paris theaters. 

Mobilization orders to rejoin his regiment at 
Rheims on August 7 have been found in the pos- 
session of a wounded German soldier in hospital 
at Brussels. The man stated that several of his 
comrades had received orders to join the colors at 
other French towns on specified dates. This shows 
how the German plans were upset by the resistance 
at Liege. 

Field-marshal Sir John French slept at the 
[86] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

British Embassy last night, and after a rousing 
reception left Paris at seven o'clock this morning 
in an automobile for an " unknown destination.'* 

Every man in France is envying the young 
dragoon oflBcer, Lieutenant Bruyant, who has been 
given the first Cross of the Legion of Honor in the 
war. The lieutenant with six men was scouting 
near the frontier, when suddenly he saw a number 
of horsemen moving a good way off, and made 
them out to be a patrol of twenty-seven Uhlans. 
Shots were exchanged and a German fell. Then the 
Uhlans cantered away. They were four to one, but 
did not care to fight. 

The French followed up resolutely, but the 
Germans kept their distance. When the dragoons 
trotted, the Uhlans trotted too. Now the former 
would gallop across a bit of open country, and the 
Germans would gallop away just as quickly. Evi- 
dently they were making for shelter. 

Soon Lieutenant Bruyant saw that they were 
trying to reach a wood, where they could take 
cover. No time was to be lost. He knew that if 
they got there they would escape him. Now was 
the moment to unchain the ardor of his men. He 
gave the orders "Draw swords!" "Charge!'* 

[87] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

The seven spurred their horses and fell upon the 
twenty-seven with shouts of defiance. The shock 
demoralized the Germans, who made no stand at 
all. One was killed by a lance thrust. The oflScer 
in command was drawing his revolver when Lieu- 
tenant Bruyant cut him down with his sabre. Six 
more were wounded and knocked off their horses. 
The rest fled in disorder. 



[88] 



Monday^ August 17. 

Sixteenth day of mobilization. Gray, cloudy 
weather with northerly breezes. Thermometer at 
five p. M. 17 degrees centigrade. 

The first trophy of the war, the flag of the One 
Hundred and Thirty-second German Infantry Regi- 
ment (First Regiment of Lower Alsace), arrived in 
Paris this morning, having been brought by motor- 
car from the front, where it was captured at Sainte- 
Blaise by the Tenth Battalion of Chasseurs-a-Pieds 
(riflemen), a corps which distinguished itself in the 
Franco-Austrian war of 1859 by capturing the first 
Austrian flag at Solferino. In 1840, the Tenth 
Chasseurs-a-Pied were conmianded by Patrice de 
MacMahon, then a major and afterwards Marshal 
of France and Due de Magenta, and whose name 
is remembered by the corps in their march song: 

" L' dixiem' bataUion, 
Commandant Mac-Mahon, 
N'a pas peur du canon, 
Nom de nom! " 

[89] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

The captured flag is of magenta colored silk, with 
a white St. Andrew's cross, on which the imperial 
eagle and the regimental insignia are embroidered 
in gold. The news that a German flag was being 
shown spread rapidly, and a large crowd gathered. 
There were no insulting remarks, merely quiet 
observation. Among the first to see the trophy 
were some school-children headed by their master, 
who explained the significance of the capture. The 
flag was taken to the Elysee Palace and shown to 
President Poincare, who is himself a major of 
chasseurs-a-pied. It was afterwards placed in the 
Invalides. 

General Michel, the Governor of Paris, has noti- 
fied all places of public entertainment that their 
programmes must henceforth be submitted to the 
censors under pain of closure of the establishment. 

Except for trifling drawbacks, inevitable in times 
like the present, Paris has little to complain of. 
There are everywhere signs of a gradual return to 
normal conditions. Among these is the reappear- 
ance of flowers on the costermongers' carts and 
at the kiosks. In the early stages of the mobiliza- 
tion, when many thousands of families were saying 
good-by to their men, no one had the heart to buy 

[90] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

flowers, even had any supply been available. The 
conveyance to Paris of flowers grown in the neigh- 
borhood of the capital has now been reorganized, 
and roses and carnations are being sold on the main 
thoroughfares at normal prices. 

Women and girl newspaper-sellers have become 
familiar figures in Paris, and their number is in- 
creasing steadily as the needs of the army are de- 
priving more and more families of their bread- 
winners. A pathetic figure seen on the Boulevard 
des Italiens yesterday afternoon was a woman 
toiling along under the weight of a sleeping child 
about five years old, and calling her newspapers 
gently, so as not to wake him. 



[91] 



Tuesday, August 18. 

Seventeenth day of mobilization. Cloudy 
weather with occasional patches of blue sky. Ther- 
mometer at five p. M. 17 degrees centigrade. Light 
northeasterly wind. 

It is now for the first time officially announced 
that the British expeditionary force has safely 
landed in France and in Belgium. The transporta- 
tion has been effected in perfect order, promptly on 
schedule time, and without the slightest hitch or 
casualty. British troops were everywhere received 
with immense enthusiasm. Not only have they 
landed at Ostend, Boulogne, and Havre, with all 
their field transports, but they have been taken up 
the Seine in steamers to Rouen, whence they were 
entrained on the strategic lines for Belgium. M. J. 
A. Picard, a young Frenchman, and his wife arrived 
from New York and reached Paris via Boulogne. 
M. Picard will join the army to-morrow as a re- 
servist employed in the general staff. His wife will 
act as a correspondent of the Tribune in France. 
M. Picard said that Boulogne was full of British 

[92] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

troops. They marched through the narrow streets 
of the city wearing their khaki uniforms, thousands 
upon thousands of them, roaring as they pass the 
new British war slogan: "Are we downhearted? 
No-o-o-o-o! Shall we win? Ye-e-e-e-e-s-s-s! " Then 
came an Irish regiment with their brown jolly faces 
beaming with fun, and singing: " It's a long way 
to Tipperary. . . . It's a long way to go! " A 
Welsh battalion followed, whistling the " Mar- 
seillaise." The prettiest girls in every town throw 
flowers and kisses to these stalwart British lads. 
As soon as the order to break ranks is given, 
bevies of smiling lasses surround the troops, offering 
them sandwiches, fruit, wine, and flowers, and even 
kisses. There would be thousands of jealous girls 
in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales to-day 
if they could but witness the reception. Highland 
regiments wearing the kilt have stupendous success 
with the blushing young women of France. 

From the seat of war in Belgium, and also in the 
North Sea, the same awful silence continues, and 
Parisians manifest growing impatience for the 
inevitable great battle. I went to the Ministry of 
War with M. and Mme. Picard, but no news of 
military importance was communicated. 

[93] 



Wednesday, August 19. 

Eighteenth day of mobilization. Fine summer 
weather, with light northerly wind. Temperature 
at five p. M. 17 degrees centigrade. 

Absolute silence concerning military movements 
in Belgium. No official communication was made 
to-day at the Ministry of War. Parisians feel that 
momentous events are about to take place but look 
forward with calm confidence. 

I called upon my old friend, M. Rene Baschet, 
manager of the Illustration, which is the only illus- 
trated weekly paper in France to continue its issue. 
I hastened to tell M. Baschet that I had received a 
private telegram from Rome announcing that the 
Pope was so ill that his physicians, and above all 
Monseigneur Zampini, did not think that His Holi- 
ness could live through the night. M. Baschet paid 
genuine tribute to Lord Kitchener's instructions 
" to every soldier of the British expeditionary 
forces", and said that the British War Minister 
showed himself at once " heroic and hygienic ", and 
cited the passage: "You may find temptations, 

[94] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

both in wine and women. You must entirely resist 
both temptations, and while treating all women 
with perfect courtesy, you should avoid any in- 
timacy." 

At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I met M. 
Jules Cambon, French Ambassador at Berlin, who 
after being treated discourteously by the Germans 
and dealt with practically as a prisoner, reached 
Paris by way of Denmark and England. It would 
have been indiscreet to ask M. Jules Cambon to 
disclose diplomatic secrets, but after conversing 
with persons who accompanied him, it seems certain 
that there had been complete understanding be- 
tween Germany and Austria about the sending of 
Austria's ultimatum to Servia. It is true that 
German diplomacy had not accepted the exact 
terms of the ultimatum communicated to Servia on 
July 23 and had asked for certain modifications in 
the text, which Austria refused to make. M. Cam- 
bon drew an important distinction between German 
diplomaq/, and the German military clique. The 
former were willing only to go so far as risking a 
war, while the latter seized the opportunity to 
bring on the war and to attack France. The dis- 
cussion lasted two or three days, and the military 

[95] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

caste, receiving the strong personal encourage- 
ment and support of Emperor Yvilliam, became 
omnipotent, and from that moment war was in- 
evitable. In regard to France, Germany con- 
stantly repeated the formula: " Put strong pres- 
sure upon Russia, your ally, to prevent her from 
helping the Servians! " To this France replied: 
" Very good, but you yourself should put strong 
pressure upon Austria, your ally, to prevent her 
from provoking a catastrophe! " To this Germany 
rejoined: ** Ah! But that is not the same thing! " 
Thus it was in this " cercle vicieux " that the dip- 
lomatic conversation continued, which, under the 
circumstances, and especially owing to the attitude 
of Emperor William, could end in nothing else but 
war. 



[96] 



Thursday, August 20. 

Nineteenth day of mobilization. Ideal summer 
weather. Light northerly breezes. Temperature 
at five p. M. 16 degrees centigrade. 

Good news of further French advances in Upper 
Alsace and the recapture of Mulhausen make Paris- 
ians cheerful. The death of the Pope during the 
present tension is scarcely noticed. All thoughts 
and expectations are centered on Belgium, where 
the great battle is impending. 

It is announced at the Ministry of War that it was 
not the Tenth but the First Battalion of Chasseurs- 
a-Pied that captured the German regimental flag 
now hung in the Invalides. The French tobacco 
factories are working night and day to supply the 
armies with tobacco, for in all countries soldiers and 
sailors are ardent devotees to " My Lady Nico- 
tine." In honor of the Belgians, a special cigarette, 
La LiSgeoise, has been produced, which is naturally 
tipped with cork {liege). The stock of " Virginia " 
has run short for supply to the British soldiers. 
The " Virginia ", being slightly scented, is known in 

[97) 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

France as tabac a la confiture, but large quantities 
are being imported from Liverpool expressly to 
satisfy Tommy Atkins. 

I met at the War Office, M. Pegoud, inventor of 
" looping the loop '*, who was being congratulated 
by M. Messimy, Minister of War. He came here 
to get a new aeroplane, his own having been riddled 
through the wings by ninety-seven bullets and two 
shells when he was making a raid of one hundred 
and eighty miles into German territory. He natu- 
rally did not tell me where he went, but simply said 
he crossed the Rhine with an official observer and 
blew up, by means of bombs, two German convoys. 
" Captain Fink," he stated, " destroyed the Fras- 
cati airship shed near Metz, where there was a 
Zeppelin which was wrecked. He also destroyed 
three Taube aeroplanes, which were also in the 
shed." 

General Bonnal, formerly professor of strategy 
at the Ecole Militaire, says: "The greatest piece 
of good fortune for France that can be expected, 
is that Emperor William will take personal com- 
mand of all the German armies. This is now 
an accomplished fact, and it gives us all immense 
encouragement . ' ' 

[98] 




From U Illustration. 

Flag of the 132nd German Infantry Regiment. 

Captured at Saint-Blaise by the 1st Battalion of Chasseurs a Pied (riflemen) 
and exhibited at a window of the Ministry of War. 



Friday, August 21. 

Twentieth day of mobilization. Threatening 
weather with overcast sky. Northwesterly wind. 
Temperature at five p. m. 19 degrees centigrade. 
No clouds prevented the eclipse of the sun from 
being seen in Paris. Most people however were 
profoundly indifferent to the celestial phenomena. 

Thousands of foreign volunteers assembled on 
the Esplanade des Invalides this morning to offer 
their services for the war. These young foreigners 
are mostly strong, active youths and have all re- 
ceived more or less military training. They marched 
through the streets in detachments of from two to 
six hundred, grouped together according to nation- 
alities, bearing French flags alongside flags of their 
own countries. There were about five thousand 
Russians, five thousand Italians, two thousand 
Belgians, numerous Czecs, Slavs, Roumanians, and 
Armenians, together with smaller contingents of 
Americans, British, and Greeks. Mr. Arthur Bles 
and his second in command, Mr. Victor Little, are 

[99] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

busy organizing the " Rough Riders " in a riding- 
school in Rue Avenue des Chasseurs. 

M. Geissler, manager of the Hotel Astoria, who 
was recently reported as having been shot as a spy 
for arranging disks on the roof of his hotel to inter- 
fere with the French wireless telegraphy, was tried 
to-day, not by court martial, but by a civil judge, 
M. Tortat, to whom the court martial had referred 
the matter for further evidence. It appears that 
M. Geissler had been denounced on insufficient 
grounds by a clerk in his employment. His inno- 
cence was established, this morning, and he was 
released from the Sante prison and handed over to 
the military authorities, who will probably let the 
matter drop. 



[100] 



Saturday, August 22. 

Mobilization is now completed. This is the 
nineteenth day since the declaration of war (Au- 
gust 3). A sultry day with light northwesterly 
breezes. Thermometer at five P. m. 22 degrees 
centigrade. 

" All that I can say to you is that the battle has 
begun. That is all I know," is the statement made 
by M. Malvy, Minister of the Interior, as he stepped 
into his motor-car at the Elysee Palace on his way 
home this evening after the meeting of the Coun- 
cil of National Defence. Remarkable, impressive 
silence prevails everywhere. If people speak, it 
seems to be in a whisper. Never before was Paris 
so full of motor-ambulances, all driving hurriedly 
hither and thither, bearing nurses or Red Cross 
attendants, but never a wounded. The whole of 
the Rue Frangois-Premier is lined on both sides 
with Red Cross motor-cars. The railway stations 
have an unusual appearance, with hundreds of 
wooden booths forming a sort of barrier to ap- 
proaches. The calm, confident, silent, patriotic 

[101] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

expectation augurs well for the future and vividly 
contrasts with the noisy, braggadocio spirit of 
1870. Paris at the present moment is the most 
orderly, well-behaved city in the world. 

I met at the Cafe Napolitain, a favorite resort 
of journalists, my friend Laurence Jerrold, chief 
Paris correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph. 
We spoke of the stories showing the amazing igno- 
rance in which German officers have been kept 
regarding the situation. Mr. Jerrold told me that 
a relative of his, who is a French officer, saw yester- 
day two Prussian lieutenants, who, as prisoners of 
war, were being taken around Paris, to a town in 
western France. Both spoke French perfectly. At 
Juvisy station, where the train stopped, they said 
to the French officer: " Of course, we know why 
you are taking us around Paris and not into Paris. 
Paris is in a state of revolution, and you don't want 
us to see what is going on there." Argument fol- 
lowed; the Prussian officers persisted that Paris 
was in revolt, that France stood alone, that Eng- 
land had declared neutrality, that an Italian army 
had already crossed the French frontier and had 
invaded the department of Haute Savoie, etc. The 
French officer rushed to the waiting-room, bought 

[102] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

all the newspapers lie could find, and brought them 
back to the Prussian prisoners, who fell aghast 
and read them in silence, as the train proceeded. 

The curator of the Louvre Museum has taken 
every possible precaution to ensure the safety of 
the works of art under his care. The Venus of 
Milo has been placed in a strong-room lined with 
steel plates — a sort of gigantic safe — and stands 
in absolute security from any stray Zeppelin bombs. 
The Winged Victory of Samothrace is also pro- 
tected by armor plates. Monna Lisa once more 
smiles in darkness. The Salle Greque, containing 
masterpieces of Phidias, is protected by sand bags. 
Many unique treasures of statuary and painting 
are placed in the cellars. Similar precautions are 
taken at the Luxembourg and at other museums. 
The upper stories of the Louvre, which are roofed 
in glass, are being converted into hospital wards, 
and thus the collections of the national museum, 
which belong to all time and to all nations, enjoy 
the protection of the Red Cross flag. 

I made a brief trip to Versailles, which has been 
transformed into an arsenal and a vast supply depot 
for food and forage. Troops of the military com- 
missariat train are cantoned in the parks and 

[ 103 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

shooting preserves of Prince Murat and of Mr. 
James Gordon Bennett. The attractive little sum- 
mer residence of Miss Elsie de Wolff and Miss 
Elizabeth Marbury is occupied by cavalry officers. 
Versailles is the mobilization center or assembly for 
the southwestern military regions, and over fifty 
thousand men have been equipped here and sent 
on to their destinations at the front. Herds of 
cattle and flocks of sheep are grazing contentedly 
on the lawns and meadows of the chateau. 

The membership of the executive committee of 
the women's committee of the American Ambulance 
has been increased by the addition of Mrs. Robert 
Woods Bliss, Mrs. Cooper Hewitt, and Mrs. Barton 
French. 

Among the American women who have volun- 
teered to serve as nurses in the hospital now being 
established in the Lycee Pasteur, in Neuilly, are 
the following: Mrs. H. Herman Harjes, Mrs. Fred- 
erick H. Allen, Mrs. Laurence V. Benet, Mrs. 
Whitney Warren, Mrs. Charles Carroll, Miss Ives, 
Miss Edith Deacon, Mrs. Barton French and Miss 
Treadwell. 



[104] 



Sunday, August 23. 

Twenty - first day of the war. A hot sultry 
day, with southerly wind. Temperature at five 
p. M. 25 degrees centigrade. 

The fourth Sunday of August finds Paris silently 
awaiting news from the great battle going on for a 
distance of one hundred and five miles extending 
from Mons to the Luxemburg frontier, and which is 
expected to rage for several days. Parisians receive 
with enthusiasm the news communicated by M. 
Iswolski, the Russian Ambassador, announcing that 
three of the five army corps which Germany has in 
East Prussia have been defeated by the army of 
General Rennekampf, near Gumbinnen. 

I drove to-day with the Duke de Loubat, who is 
a close friend of Cardinal Ferrata, now spoken of as 
foremost favorite among the Papabili Cardinals. 
Monseigneur Ferrata enjoys great popularity not 
only at Rome but abroad, and is a warm friend of the 
United States. He has also a keen sense of humor. 
Not long ago a distinguished member of the French 
parliament lunched with Monseigneur Ferrata 

[ 105 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

and remarked: "How is it that the Church re- 
quires such a long lapse of time before pronouncing 
a decree of nullity of marriage? " " Well,'* replied 
Cardinal Ferrata, " before the end of the ten years' 
delay, it is usually found that one of the three dies or 
disappears, and that the petition consequently is no 
longer pressed ! " A great change is noticeable in 
the Paris churches. They have been more crowded 
since the war than for many years past. I entered 
the Madeleine to-day and found, to my surprise, 
an unusually large proportion of men among the 
congregation. Most of them were reservists called 
to arms. In other churches the congregations were 
almost entirely composed of women and children. 
Our Ambassador, Herrick, is a sort of guardian 
angel for Americans in Paris. I saw him to-day 
working with Mr. Robert Woods Bliss, first secre- 
tary of the Embassy. He rose at six in the morning, 
and except for a brief repose for breakfast and 
dinner, is constantly ready to give advice to Ameri- 
cans or to attend to intricate diplomatic duties that 
crop up here at every turn. Our Ambassador also 
has on his shoulders the affairs of all the Germans 
and Austrians who remain in France. Some of 
our countrymen are very hard to please. Every- 

[ 106 ] 





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Robert Woods Bliss, First Secretary of the United States 
Embassy in Paris, September, 1914. 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

thing possible is being done for those who wish to 
return home, and money, when necessary, is ad- 
vanced to them for the purpose. But they strongly 
object to waiting in line for their turn, whether 
at the Embassy, the Consulate, or at the Trans- 
atlantic Company, where, owing to the crowd of 
applicants, there is some necessary delay in attend- 
ing to them. 

A number of complications have arisen by dis- 
charged servants filing statements against their 
former employers, denouncing them as *' probable 
spies." Several examples of this have already 
occurred with prominent American ladies who per- 
manently reside here. I spoke with M. Hennion, 
the prefect of police, on the subject, and he said 
that " such malicious accusations " — and he showed 
me a pile of denunciations nearly a yard high — 
" were never acted upon, unless under really sus- 
picious circumstances." 

One of Mr. Herrick's callers at the American 
Embassy was Mme. Henri de Singay, a grand- 
daughter of General Logan, of Civil War fame. 
She is the wife of a French army officer and when 
the war broke out was living in a chateau near 
Liege. She fled to Brussels with her child, and 

[ 107 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

then, leaving the latter there with her sister-in-law, 
came to Paris to say good-by to her husband, who 
is attached to the aviation corps near Versailles. 
Now Mme. de Singay cannot return to her child, 
but she is not worrying over the situation and has 
offered her services to the American Ambulance 
here in Paris. 

The earnest, practical way in which General 
Victor Constant Michel, Military Governor of Paris, 
carries out his work, is admirable. General Michel 
has quietly despatched large numbers of the unruly 
youths of Belleville, Montmartre, and Montpar- 
nasse, — known as the " apaches " — to the coun- 
try, in small gangs, to reap the wheat harvest, and 
he also employs them in the government cartridge 
and ammunition factories. In Paris, they have 
completely vanished from sight. The prohibition 
of the drinking and sale of absinthe, not only in 
Paris, but throughout France, was also due to the 
foresight of the Military Governor. General Michel, 
although a rigid disciplinarian and a masterful 
organizer, is extremely affable and agreeable. He 
was born at Auteuil in 1850, and after graduation 
from Saint-Cyr, the French West Point, served in 
the war of 1870-1871 as second lieutenant of 

[108] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

infantry. In 1894 he was made colonel of an 
infantry regiment and showed such proficiency 
during the manoeuvers that he became general-of- 
brigade in 1897. He was made general-of-division 
in 1902; he is member of the Supreme War Council, 
and in 1910 was awarded the high distinction of 
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor. 



[109] 



Monday, August 24- 
Twenty - second day of the war. Hot day with 
bright blue sky and southeasterly wind. Ther- 
mometer at five P. M. 27 degrees centigrade. 

Terrific night and day fighting continues on the 
Sambre and Meuse. The French attack seems to 
have been repulsed. The allies remain on the de- 
fensive, awaiting further German attacks. The 
losses on both sides are terrible. Some days yet 
must elapse before the final result of the great 
battle can be known. Meanwhile, Paris waits with 
patriotic confidence. Russian victories in East 
Prussia, the Japanese bombardment of Tsin-Tao, 
in Kiao-Chow, the advance of the Servians, and the 
increasing probability of Italy claiming eventually 
her " irredenta " territory, are all encouraging fac- 
tors in this world-wide war. 

The American volunteers mustered to-day at their 
recruiting offices in the Rue de Valais and marched 
to the Invalides, where they passed the French 
medical test prior to enrolment in the French army. 
The men are wonderfully fit, and their splendid 

[110] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

muscular, wiry physique was greatly admired as 
they marched through the streets. Out of the two 
hundred present, only one was not passed by the 
army surgeons, and even he was not definitely 
refused. The corps will proceed to-morrow to the 
Gare Saint -Lazare for entrainment. They will be 
sent, at first, to Rouen. 

M. F. A. Granger, a young Frenchman, arrived 
to-day in Paris from New York, where he left his 
wife and family. He sailed on the Rochambeau with 
many of his countrymen, coming, like himself, to 
join the colors. M. Granger tells me that he saw 
near Lisieux a train of German prisoners, mostly 
cavalrymen, some of whom had been wounded by 
lance thrusts. They seemed resigned to their fate, 
without enthusiasm, and on the whole rather pleased 
at the prospect of being confined and fed in France, 
instead of remaining at the front. They said that 
they had no idea that England and Belgium were 
fighting against them, until they crossed swords 
with the Belgian cavalry, which they at first sup- 
posed were French. 



[Ill] 



Tuesday, August 25. 

This is the twenty-third day of the war. Another 
warm, sunny day, with northwesterly breezes. 
Thermometer at five P. m. 24 degrees centigrade. 

Better news from the front this morning. The 
great battle that has been raging for three days 
from Mons to Virton, during which the French and 
British attacks were repulsed, has been resumed, 
and renewed German attacks have been checked. 
Considerable anxiety as to the result nevertheless 
prevails. My concierge, Baptiste, for instance, 
shakes his head in a mournful way and says : " Ah ! 
Monsieur, there is already terrible loss of life. My 
brother-in-law, who left Luxemburg three weeks 
ago to join his reserve regiment in France, is with- 
out a cent in the world, and what will become of his 
wife and two little children — the Lord only knows ! 
Their little farmhouse, with all their belongings, 
has been burned, and nothing is left." 

I breakfasted to-day at the restaurant Cham- 
peaux. Place de la Bourse. Two agents-de-change 
(ojQficial members of the Paris Stock Exchange) 

[112] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

took very gloomy views of the situation. It seems, 
however, that the French rentes maintain their 
quotation of seventy-five francs. Mr. Elmer Rob- 
erts of the Associated Press and Mr. Hart 0. Berg 
sat at our table. Both thought that the war would 
be much longer than at first expected and would 
depend upon how long Germany could exist, owing 
to the impossibility of obtaining food from abroad. 
" Eight months," said Mr. Berg. 

After lunch I went with Roberts to see the de- 
parture of the first contingent of American volun- 
teers from the Gare Saint -Lazare. These youths 
are a tall, stalwart lot, marching with a sort of cow- 
boy swing. They were not in uniform, but wore 
flannel shirts, broad-brimmed felt hats, and khaki 
trousers. They carried a big American flag sur- 
mounted with a huge bouquet of roses, and along- 
side this a large French flag. They were loudly 
cheered as they were entrained for Rouen, where 
they will be drilled into effective shape. 

I met Mrs. Edith Wharton, who remains in Paris, 
and is doing good work with her ouvroir, or sewing- 
circle, which, with Mrs. Thorne, she has organized 
in the Rue Vaneau. This ouvroir is to supply work 
to unmarried French women and widows. Among 

[113] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

those who have liberally subscribed to this are Mrs. 
William Jay, Mrs. Elbert H. Gary, Mrs. Beach 
Grant, and Mrs. Griswold Gray. 

I went in the afternoon to see Madame Wadding- 
ton at her ouvroify 156 Boulevard Haussmann. 
Madame Waddington makes an appeal by cable to 
the New York TribunCy calling upon all American 
women and men to aid her indigent French sewing- 
women, who are employed in making garments for 
the sick and wounded, for which they receive one 
and a half francs (thirty cents) and one meal, for a 
day's work. Madame Waddington wore a gray linen 
gown, with a red cross, and was working away very 
merrily, distributing materials to the women. She 
told me that her son had joined the colors as a 
sergeant in an infantry reservist regiment and was 
at the front. 

M. Maurice Maeterlinck, the Belgian writer and 
philosopher, is living at his quaint Abbaye de 
Sainte-Wandrille, on the Seine near Caudebec. 
The author of La Vie des Abeilles has been helping 
the peasants gather the wheat harvest. 

After three weeks, during which relief funds have 
been advanced to Americans at the Embassy, the 
demands for money continue to be as heavy as 

[ 114 ] 







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Ph 









PAKIS WAR DAYS 

ever. Paris is a human clearing-house, into which 
new arrivals are now coming every day from 
Switzerland and elsewhere. Although many tourists 
have been helped and started on their way for 
the United States, new ones take their places be- 
fore they are fairly out of the way. 

Thus, although the Embassy hoped that it had 
succeeded in getting the persons in most urgent 
need off to America on the Espagne, the departure of 
that vessel has caused no let-up in the demand for 
funds, and some individuals who have already 
been helped once are now coming back for further 
assistance. 

One of the negro song and dance artists, who was 
given some money a couple of weeks ago and who 
was supposed to have left on the Espagne, pTesenied 
himself and asked for further funds after that 
vessel steamed. When asked how it happened that 
he did not go, as arranged, he replied: " 'Deed, Ah 
overslept mahself." 

" Considering that the boat train left at six 
o'clock in the evening,'* remarked Major Cosby, 
who has charge of the administration of the relief 
fund, " he would seem to be a good sleeper." 

In the case of all persons who are helped, the 
[115] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

stipulation is made that they must take the earliest 
possible means of transport to America. The 
Government has no intention of financing tourists 
who desire to visit Europe at this time. The sole 
object of the relief fund is to get them back to the 
United States as soon as possible. 

In addition to the ordinary relief fund, one hun- 
dred and^seventy thousand francs have been paid out 
at the Embassy this week by cable orders against 
funds already deposited with the Department of 
State. This is a purely business transaction, the 
Government having already received the full amount 
of the payment made, but it has been a source of 
much relief to many travelers. 



[116] 



Wednesday, August 26. 

Twenty - fourth day of the war. Dull, cheer- 
less weather, with a Scotch drizzle in the afternoon 
and heavy rain in the evening. Southwesterly wind. 
Temperature at five P. M. 20 degrees centigrade. 

The great battle on the Sambre and Meuse con- 
tinues with frightful slaughter on both sides. The 
allies have been partially forced back but resist with 
dogged determination. 

Mrs. Hermann Duryea, a family relative of mine, 
and whose husband's horse " Durbar " won the 
English Derby this spring, has come to Paris for a 
few days from their country place near Argentan in 
Normandy, and is stopping at her apartment in the 
Avenue Gabriel. Mrs. Duryea's chauffeur, who is 
a young Frenchman, says that Belgian chauffeurs 
have reached Normandy from the north, telling 
harrowing tales of the brutality and cruelty of the 
Germans, and announcing that the " German 
cavalry and armored motor-cars would soon pre- 
vent people from leaving Paris." Mrs. Duryea, 
who is an exceedingly cool-headed, plucky woman, 

[117] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

came to me for advice. I told her that there was 
no probabihty at present of communication from 
Paris to the westward being interfered with. She 
sent some of her servants home to the United States 
and made arrangements to rejoin her husband at 
Bazoches-en-Houlme, near Argentan. The chateau 
has, through the generosity of the Duryeas, been 
turned into a Red Cross hospital. 

President Poincare has taken a leaf from Great 
Britain, and Premier Rene Viviani has reconstructed 
a new Cabinet with eminent men, representing all 
political parties, making a government of national 
defence. Since the outbreak of the war, the Cabinet 
has been taking advice from statesmen such as 
MM. Millerand, Delcasse, Briand, and Ribot. 
These men now form part of the Ministry, the 
formation of which was announced to a group of 
journalists at 11.30 this evening at the Ministry of 
War, when we assembled there for the usual nightly 
communique. The new Cabinet is made up as fol- 
lows: Prime Minister (without Portfolio), M. Rene 
Viviani; Vice-President of Council and Minister of 
Justice, M. Aristide Briand; Interior, M. Malvy; 
Foreign Affairs, M. Delcasse; War, M. Millerand; 
Navy, M. Augagneur; Finance, M. Ribot; Agri- 

[118] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

culture, M. Fernand David; Public Works, M. 
Marcel Sembat; Labor, M. Bienvenu-Martin; Com- 
merce, M. Thomson; Public Instruction, M. Albert 
Sarraut; Colonies, M. G. Doumergue; Minister 
without Portfolio, M. Jules Guesde. 

M. Etienne Alexandre Millerand is an illustrious 
member of the Paris Bar, who has been several 
times a cabinet minister. As head of the War De- 
partment, two years ago, he did more than any- 
living Frenchman towards the reconstitution of true 
esprit militaire in the French army. He prepared 
the way for the three years' service, and reorganized 
the forces of the.nation that had grown rusty during 
the decade that preceded the alarm caused by the 
German Emperor at Agadir. It is quite probable 
that M. Millerand will prove to be the Lazare 
Camot — " The Organizer of Victory " — of the 
present war. With M. Theophile Delcasse as 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, French diplomacy 
cannot be in better hands. In calling upon M. 
Jules Guesde, socialist deputy for Lille, and upon 
M. Marcel Sembat, a red-hot socialist — both 
unified socialists and trusted friends of the late Jean 
Jaures, the Government is assured of the hearty 
support of the extreme " revolutionary " parties. 

[119] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

MM. Guesde and Sembat can certainly do the 
Government less harm inside the Cabinet than they 
might do outside of it. No better evidence that all 
bitterness of political parties is now in the melting- 
pot can be found than in the comment of the re- 
actionary, ultra-Catholic, royalist Gaulois, which 
says: ** We are to-day all united in the bonds of 
patriotism in face of the common enemy. We 
place absolute confidence in the men who have 
assumed a task, the success of which means the 
salvation of France and the triumph of civiliza- 
tion." M. Georges Clemengeau was offered a place 
in the Cabinet, but declined to accept it. 

The appointment of General Joseph Simon Gal- 
lieni as commander of the army, of Paris, and mili- 
tary governor, in succession to General Michel, 
means that France is resolved to put Paris in a 
thoroughly efficient state of defence, and to be ready 
for the worst possible emergencies. General Michel 
is an admirable organizer and administrator, but 
he has not had the vast military experience of 
General Gallieni, who is, by the way, a warm friend 
and comrade of the former military governor. 
Moreover General Michel will now serve under 
General Gallieni's orders. 

[120] 




Photo. Henri Manuel, Paris. 

General Joseph Simon Gallieni, appointed Military Governor 
and Commander of the Army of Paris, August 26, 1914. 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

General Gallieni, as a strategist, enjoys the same 
high reputation as the commander-in-chief, General 
Joffre. He was bom on April 24, 1849, at Saint- 
Beat in the department of the Haute Garonne. He 
entered the Saint-Cyr military academy in 1868, 
and was appointed a sub-lieutenant in the Third 
Regiment of Marine Infantry two years later, and 
he fought with his regiment through the war of 
1870. Since then he has distinguished himself in 
Tonkin, Senegal, and Madagascar. Everywhere 
he has shown exceptional qualities, both as a soldier 
and administrator. His brilliant career finally led 
to his appointment as a member of the Higher 
Council of War, and, in acknowledgment of his 
great services, he was maintained on the active list 
after passing the age limit. He is a Grand Cross of 
the Legion of Honor. 

President Poincare to-day confers further extraor- 
dinary powers upon General Joffre, authorizing 
him to exercise the almost sovereign right of pro- 
moting oflScers on the spot, just as Napoleon did, 
by simply naming them to the posts where he 
thinks they may be most useful. Thus, General 
Joffre can make a captain a colonel or a full-fledged 
general-of-division, by word of mouth. This priv- 

[121] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

ilege was not even granted by Napoleon to his 
marshals. These promotions are, however, only 
provisional during the war, and when peace is made, 
must be ratified by Parliament. This renders it 
possible to replace general officers, killed or wounded, 
by officers selected on the battlefield, and above all 
enables important commands to be filled by young 
officers, who give proof of their qualities in face of 
the enemy. 

An idea of the infinite tragedy of war was brought 
home to many Parisians by a visit to the Cirque de 
Paris, where twenty-five hundred Belgian refugees, 
men, women, and children, have been provided 
with at least a temporary shelter. 

The vast building, where so many famous boxing- 
matches have taken place, is now completely trans- 
formed. The ring has been cut in two, and hundreds 
of fauteuils have been placed in small groups so 
arranged as to form substitutes for beds. The boxes 
have been reserved for the many women with infants 
m arms. 

Hardly were they installed, and hardly had the 
news spread in Paris of their miserable plight, than 
hundreds of Parisians visited the Cirque de Paris, 
all bringing gifts of food, drink, or clothing. It 

[122] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

was a pathetic and at the same time a cheering sight 
to watch the refugees hungrily eating the midday 
meal which their French sympathizers had helped 
to provide. These refugees, many of whom carry 
babies in arms, will probably be sent into Normandy 
and Brittany to be cared for. 



[ns] 



Thursday, August 27. 

Twenty-fifth day of the war. Rain, severe 
thunderstorm at noon, northwesterly wind. Tem- 
perature at five p. M. 17 degrees centigrade. 

The huge German army, making its desperate 
struggle to invade France at many points from 
Maubeuge to the Vosges, is still held in check. 
Meanwhile the hand of fate, in the shape of the 
gigantic " Russian steam-roller ", steadily advances 
in East Prussia. Cossacks have penetrated to 
within two hundred miles of Berlin. 

Minister of War Millerand has revived the daily 
meetings of heads of departments at the War 
OflSce. To-day the defensive condition of Paris 
was discussed. Work already in progress, under 
the supervision of General Gallieni, is pushed for- 
ward rapidly and methodically, and obstructions 
to artillery fire are being cleared away in the sub- 
urbs. 

I rambled this morning through the so-called 
German quarter of Paris around the Rue d'Haute- 
ville and between the main boulevards and the Rue 

[124] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Lafayette. All the German and Austrian teutons 
shops and places of business are closed. The hras- 
seriesy where the best Munich or Pilsener beer, with 
wiener Schnitzel or leber-knoedel suppe could be 
obtained until the end of July, are invisible behind 
signless iron shutters. The " intelligence section " 
of the German general staff had for years obtained 
precious military information through the enter- 
prising, affable German commercial agents, res- 
taurant keepers, commission merchants, waiters, 
and hotel errand boys (chasseurs) who thrived in this 
thrifty quarter. 

A wounded sergeant of a Highland regiment, in 
talking yesterday with an American friend of mine 
at Amiens station, bitterly denounced the German 
practice of concealing their advance by driving 
along in front of them numbers of refugee women 
and children. The Scottish sergeant said: "Our 
battalion was badly cut up. We were using our 
machine guns to repel a German advance. Sud- 
denly we saw a lot of women and children coming 
along the road towards us. Our officers ordered us 
to cease firing. The refugees came pouring through 
our lines. Immediately behind them, however, 
were the German riflemen, who suddenly opened 

[125] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

fire on us at short range with terrible efifect. Had 
it not been for this dastardly trick of shoving 
women and children ahead of them at the points of 
their bayonets, we might have wiped out this 
German rifle battalion that attacked us, but in- 
stead of that, we were driven back. Damn these 
Germans! " With these words the Scottish ser- 
geant, his right arm shattered from shoulder to 
elbow, climbed into the train of British wounded 
and was carried off towards Rouen. 

A number of French wounded soldiers from the 
Northern Army arrived in Paris during the night 
and were sent to the Military Hospital, Rue des 
RecoUets, to the Hospital of Saint-Louis, and to a 
hospital installed in the College Rollin. Among 
them were a number slightly wounded, but very 
few severely. Their spirit seems excellent, and all 
agree that few were killed considering the number 
of wounded. 

All promise to obey orders more closely when they 
are well and back in the firing line, and not to be 
too rash. Rashness and too great anxiety to get 
at the foe seem, indeed, to have been the cause of a 
great many casualties. 

[126] 



Friday, August 28. 

Twenty-sixth day of the war. Bright, clear 
weather with northeasterly breezes. Temperature 
at five p. M. 20 degrees centigrade. 

I saw, in the Rue Franklin, M. Georges Clemen- 
geau, the veteran demolisher of cabinets, and for- 
mer Prime Minister, who in his youthful days 
was a mayor of the eighteenth arrondissement of 
Paris, the turbulent Montmartre quarter. M. 
Clemen Qeau severely criticizes the new Viviani 
Cabinet. " Viviani," said he, " asked me twice to 
form part of it. I declined because, in addition to 
personal reasons, the Ministry did not seem to me 
to realize the elements of power and action required 
by this war. Having this opinion, it would not be 
fair either to Viviani or to myself to enter into a 
combination where I should have to assume the 
responsibility for acts that to my mind would not 
adequately meet the emergency. Under the cir- 
cumstances, there are only three ministers that 
count for anything; those of war, foreign affairs, 
and finance." M. Clemen geau said: " There must 

1 127 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

be something wrong with the mobilization scheme, 
because when our troops were outnumbered at the 
front, there were great quantities of young ojBScers 
and men who for ten days had been awaiting, at 
their various points of assembly, orders to join their 
corps, and at the last moment were told to go 
home." 

On the other hand, M. Millerand, Minister of 
War, has visited General Joffre at the army head- 
quarters and returned to Paris to-night " very 
satisfied with the situation." 

I took a spin in an automobile to-day to Ver- 
sailles, and thence to Buc with its red brick aero- 
drome tower, sheds, and long rows of hangars. 
Here were groups of airmen in the rough, service- 
able French sapper uniform — loose-fitting blue 
coat, blue trousers with a double red stripe, blue 
flannel scarf about their necks, as if they had all 
got sore throats, and blue pointed forage caps. 
Here is Chevillard, that wonderful gymnast of the 
air. There is Verrier, and here, driving a sporting- 
looking car, is Carpentier, whose more familiar 
costume is a pair of white slips and a pair of four- 
ounce gloves. For Carpentier has been mobilized, 
too. Instead of making thousands of dollars this 

[ 128 ] 




Etienne Alexandre Millerand, Minister of War, August 27, 1914. 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

month by his fight with Young Ahearn, and pos- 
sibly other matches with Bombardier Wells and 
Gunboat Smith, he, too, is on the pay list of the 
army at next to nothing a day. He is attached to 
the flying center as a chauffeur, and that car he is 
driving is his own, only he cannot take it out with- 
out orders now. 

Morning and evening they fly at Buc. They are 
constantly testing new machines, and then, when 
they have tested them, they fly off to the army on 
the eastern frontier, or to Amiens, perhaps. The 
other day a pilot even flew to Antwerp right across 
the German lines over the heads of the German 
army, but so high up that they never even guessed 
he was there. Then they practise bomb-dropping, 
too, and they are always on the alert for a pos- 
sible Zeppelin raid on Paris. The other night a 
wireless message reached the Eiffel Tower from 
the frontier that one had started. It was mid- 
night, and instantly the alarm was given at 
Buc. The airmen sleep in the hangars there, and 
in five minutes they had their machines wheeled 
out. 

By the light of lanterns you could see mechanics 
running to and fro. The airmen themselves were 

[129] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

hurriedly putting on helmets and woollen gloves 
and leather coats, for it is cold work hunting air- 
ships at midnight. Their little armory of bombs 
was quickly overhauled, and the belt of the machine 
gun that the man in the passenger's seat uses — 
the " syringe " as they call it — was filled, and the 
engines were set running to see that they were all 
right. But it was a false alarm after all, for, al- 
though a close lookout was kept everywhere be- 
tween Paris and the frontier for the adventurous 
Zeppelin, and a hundred guns were craning up into 
the sky ready for her if she hove in sight, she 
never came, and the tired airmen turned in 
again to snatch a little sleep before morning 
parade. 

Constantly airmen fly off to the front. Those 
who have been there say that the supply trains 
and the whole service is working splendidly. They 
have organized a new sport among the air-scouts. 
Every day, at the end of the day's reconnoitring, 
the airmen count the bullet-holes in the wings and 
body of their machines. The aeroplane that has 
the most is the cock machine of the squadrilla — 
six in the squadrilla — and holds the title until 
some one gets a bigger peppering and displaces him. 

[130] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

They are very jealous of this distinction, and the 
counting has to be very carefully carried out by an 
impartial jury, for the cock aeroplane has the honor 
of carrying the mascot of the squadrilla. 



[131] 



Saturday, August 29. 

Twenty - seventh day of the war. Sultry 
weather, with light northerly breezes. Tempera- 
ture at five p. M. 26 degrees centigrade. 

" Hold tight! " Such is the watchword given by 
the French Government, and French and British 
soldiers are holding tight for all they are worth 
against the slowly advancing German armies. 
Heavy fighting all along the lines from the Somme 
to the Vosges continues without a break. The 
Prussian Guard Corps and the Tenth German Army 
Corps have been driven back to Guise, in the de- 
partment of the Aisne (one hundred and ninety 
kilometers from Paris), but on the French left the 
Germans have fought their way to La Fere (north- 
west of Laon, about one hundred and forty kilo- 
meters from Paris). In the eastern theater of the 
war, Koenigsberg has been invested by the Russians 
under Rennenkampf, who contmue their advance 
towards Berlin. 

Paris begins to realize that the war is coming closer 
to them, by the following official announcement: 

[132] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 
DEFENCES OF PARIS 

The Military Governor of Paris, in view of the urgent 
military requirements, has decided: 

1. Within a delay of four full days, starting from August 
30, all proprietors, occupants, and tenants of all descriptions 
of houses and buildings situated in the military zone of old 
and new forts mu^t evacuate and demolish the aforesaid 
houses and buildings. 

2. In the event of these instructions not being fulfilled 
within the prescribed delay, these houses and buildings will 
be immediately demolished by military authority and the 
materials taken away. 

The Military Governor of Paris, Commander of 
the Armies of Paris. 

(Signed) GALLIENI. 

General Pau, the gallant one-armed general who 
commands the French Army of the East, arrived 
in Paris at four o'clock this afternoon, but the 
reason for his visit is naturally kept secret. He 
had a conference at the Ministry of War with M. 
Millerand. He called for a few moments at his 
residence in the Boulevard Raspail. General Pau's 
son, a sub-lieutenant of infantry, is lying wounded 
at the hospital at Troyes. General Pau had an 
informal conversation with President Poincare at 
the Elysee Palace, and leaves again for the front 
to-morrow morning. 

[ 133 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Refugees from Belgium and northern France 
continue to pour into Paris. But the authorities, 
having had time to organize, are sending them on 
with very Kttle delay to various places in the west 
and south of France. 

It is impossible to prevent these frightened people 
from taking refuge in Paris, which they regard as 
a place of safety, and the only course open is to 
send them on as soon as possible. 

Among the financial victims of the war are a 
number of Chinese students who have found their 
supplies of money from home suddenly cut off. A 
body of about sixty went to the Chinese Legation 
in the Rue de Babylone on Friday evening, and 
clamored for money. 

The Minister, Mr. Liu Shih-shen, was out but, to 
the great disgust of the staff, the students invaded 
the dining-room and kitchen and commandeered 
the dinner which was being prepared for the Minis- 
ter. 

A message was sent to his Excellency, who dined 
at a restaurant. Meanwhile the students, having 
dined, began to gamble, and several made prepara- 
tions to spend the night in the Legation. They 
were, however, expelled by the police. 

[134] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

At the meeting of the women's auxihary of the 
American Ambulance at the Embassy this after- 
noon, many details in connection with the estab- 
lishment and maintenance of the hospital in the 
Lycee Pasteur were discussed. 

A committee was appointed for the special pur- 
pose of supplying with clothing such wounded sol- 
diers as may be brought to the hospital. 

It was announced that Miss Matthews will suc- 
ceed Miss Cameron as the chairman of the sewing 
committee, the latter having been called to America 
by her brother's illness. 

Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt has offered to contribute 
many articles needed in the installation of the hos- 
pital, particularly such things as window curtains 
and other furnishings designed to make the insti- 
tution as comfortable as possible for the sufferers. 

For just four weeks now the American Govern- 
ment has been advancing money to citizens in need 
of it at the Embassy, and still the stream of appli- 
cants continues in about the same proportions as 
ever. 

The undiminishing demand for funds is due 
largely to the fact that there are new arrivals in the 
city every day, but Major Cosby, who is in charge 

[135] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

of the distribution of the money, believes that with 
the departure of the Rochambeau and the Flandre 
there will come a gradually lessening demand for 
assistance. 

So far about five hundred persons have received 
money, and the total paid out for the four weeks 
is 62,100 francs. This represents about one hun- 
dred and twenty-five francs, or twenty-five dollars, 
apiece. 

In addition to the Government fund, which is 
paid only to persons who accept it as a loan, about 
twenty-seven thousand francs, raised here in Paris, 
has been given outright to persons who for various 
reasons could not be assisted out of the Government 
fund. 

Captain Brinton has also paid out from sixty 
to seventy thousand dollars to various persons 
upon cable orders from the Department of State 
in Washington. This represents a purely busi- 
ness transaction, as the money has first been de- 
posited with the Government by friends in the 
United States. It has, however, been an exceed- 
ingly practical means of helping persons who other- 
wise might have had to fall back on the relief funds. 

[ 136 ] 



Sunday, August 30. 

Twenty - eighth day of the war. Sunny, but 
sultry, August Sunday. Light northerly breeze, 
thermometer at five p. m. 26 degrees centigrade. 

No let up in the fighting. The Germans continue 
with wonderful tenacity their favorite tactics of 
rolling up their forces on their right, and then en- 
veloping and striving to turn the Anglo-French left. 
The French left, as officially announced at the War 
Office, has been forced to yield ground. But the 
result of the gigantic battle in the department of 
the Aisne near La Fere, Guise, and Laon, on the 
road to Paris, still hangs in the balance. 

It seems pretty certain that the French armies 
were concentrated too far to the east. The tempta- 
tion to enter Alsace, where strong force is needless, 
was too great for the then war minister, M. Messimy, 
to withstand. France is paying for this now. For 
over twenty years it was an open secret among 
mihtary authorities that the main German attack 
upon France would burst in through Belgium and 
the northern departments of France, which seem 

[ 137 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

to have been left without adequate fortifications. 
Here is France's vulnerable point. For France to 
be now outnumbered in this theater of the war is 
strong evidence of her also being out-generaled. 
While the French have wasted needless troops in 
futile excursions beyond the Vosges and in the 
Ardennes, they seem to have been blind to the 
tremendous concentration of German fighting 
strength in the north. Had it not been for the 
solid, heroic resistance of the British army under 
Field-marshal Sir John French, on the extreme 
French left at Mons and Cambrai, it is very likely 
that the French would have sustained a crushing 
defeat. That the French should be outnumbered 
on the lines near La Fere seems incomprehensible 
and requires satisfactory explanation from the 
Ministry of War. Further proof of this primary 
fault is forthcoming in the proclamation issued 
to-day, calling to the colors the 1914 class, some 
two hundred and fifty thousand young men of 
twenty, due to join the army in October. More- 
over, those classes of the reserves of the territorial 
army called up when the general mobilization order 
was issued and for some unaccountable reason 
actually sent home again, have also been recalled. 

[138] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

In broad daylight, at 1.15 this afternoon, the 
Germans left their first visiting-card in Paris. 
This came in the shape of three bombs dropped 
from a German aeroplane, that made a curved flight 
over the city at an altitude of two thousand meters. 
The first bomb fell at the corner of the Rue des 
Vinaigriers and the Rue du Marais, another in the 
Rue des Recollets, and a third near an asylum for 
aged workmen on the Quai Valmy. The airman 
also let fall an oriflamme, two and a half meters long, 
bearing the black and white Prussian colors, bal- 
lasted by sand in an india-rubber football, at- 
tached to which was a letter, written in German, 
which ran as follows: "The German Army is at 
the gates of Paris. The only thing left for you to 
do is to surrender! (Signed) Lieutenant von 
Heidssen." 

The first bomb wounded two women, one of 
whom died of her injuries at the hospital shortly 
afterwards. She was concierge of the house Number 
39 Rue des Vinaigriers. No other damage was done. 
There were thousands of Parisians promenading the 
streets at the time. The news spread like wild-fire, 
but no panic, nor even undue excitement, ensued; 
the people of Paris are totally different to-day from 

[139] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

what they were in 1870. Of course the intention of 
these aeroplane bomb-throwers, of whose exploits 
we shall probably hear a great deal, was to create 
a panic and demoralize the inhabitants, and es- 
pecially to terrify women and children. This utterly 
failed. After dropping the three bombs and his 
carte de visite, the German aeroplane vanished 
towards the east. It seems strange that the flo- 
tillas of air-craft at Buc were thus caught napping 
and allowed the German air-lieutenant to escape. 

I called in the afternoon upon Madame Wad- 
dington and her sister, Miss King. Madame Wad- 
dington was anxious about her grandchildren, who 
are at their country place not far from Laon, where 
the battle is now raging. Madame Waddington 
says that Mr. Herrick, whom she saw this morning, 
told her that if worse came to the worst, the seat 
of government would probably be transferred to 
Bordeaux. 

A large sum in gold coin, it is said, has been taken 
from the vaults of the Bank of France and sent to 
Rennes. Sharp comment is elicited by an incident 
at the Travellers Club, a somewhat select resort 
of Americans, English, and other foreigners, in the 
former hotel of the famous beauty of the Second 

[140] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Empire, Madame de Paiva, in the Champs-Ely sees. 
It appears that a wealthy and prominent German 
by birth, but naturalized American, Mr. X., casually 
remarked one day at the club that he did not in- 
tend to trouble himself to get a permis de sejour 
(permission to reside in Paris), because "when the 
German troops arrived in the capital, these papers 
would no longer be needed." Mr. X. was told that 
if he persisted in expressing such views, offensive 
to the members of the club and to the hospitable 
city in which the club was situated, his resignation 
would be forthwith accepted by the house com- 
mittee. Mr. X. paid no attention to the warning, 
but when next he entered the club — a few days after 
the incident — he was informed that his name had 
been stricken from the list of members. 

M. Adrien Mithouard, President of the Municipal 
Council, states that arrangements were made months 
ago to store a large quantity of flour in the city, so 
as to provide the civilian inhabitants with bread. 
This flour is in the hands of the military authori- 
ties, who have a considerably larger supply than 
was originally intended, and are still adding to it. 

There will be no lack of coal. The army has 
accumulated enormous quantities, and the Gas 

[ 141 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Company has enough coal for five months. M. 
Mithouard also says he recently made a personal 
investigation of the water supply, and found that, 
even if the aqueducts were cut, the city would have 
two hundred and sixty thousand cubic meters of 
filtered water available every day from the Ivry 
and Saint-Maur waterworks; and even without 
these, Paris could still have two hundred and sixty 
thousand cubic meters a day chemically purified. 

The Municipal Council has also approved a pro- 
posal to buy up certain provisions to be added to the 
necessaries of life for the civilian population. 

M. Georges Clemengeau, the ** parliamentary 
tiger," who, although remaining outside the Cabinet, 
is one of the greatest personal forces of France, has 
made a stirring statement to Mr. Somerville Story, 
editor of the Daily Mail. M. Clemengeau said: 

" Yes, their guns are almost within sound of 
Paris. And what if they are.^ What if we were yet 
to be defeated again and again? We should still go 
on. Let them burn Paris if they can. Let them 
wipe it out, raze it to the level of the ground. We 
shall still fight on. 

" This is not my personal resolve alone. The 
Government, too, is just as grimly determined. 

[142] 




Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Eiffel Tower's searchlight to reveal bomb-throwing air craft 
and air-scouts of the Germans. 



PAIIIS WAR DAYS 

Do you know, it is strange that one should have 
been able to come to feel like this, but the Germans 
could destroy all these beautiful places that I love 
so much; they may blow up the museums, over- 
throw monuments — it would only leave me still 
determined to fight on. 

" France may disappear, if you like. It may be 
called Frankreich, if you like. We may be driven 
back to the very Pyrenees. It will not abate one 
fraction our vigor and our decision. 

" And in this terrible war we must all realize how 
unutterably great are the stakes. It is we in France 
and our friends in Belgium who are doomed to 
suffer the most bitterly. England will be spared 
much that we must endure. But we must all make 
sacrifices almost beyond reckoning. We are fight- 
ing for the dignity of humanity. We are fighting 
for the right of civilization to continue to exist. 
We are fighting so that nations may continue to live 
in Europe without being under the heel of another 
nation. It is a great cause; it is worthy of great 
sacrifices. 

" I say this to convince you of the unbreakable 
spirit of the French nation. 

" But the situation is not yet so grave. We knew 
[143] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

our frontier would be invaded somewhere. We 
have many troops in reserve for the big battle that 
will follow this one. 

*' The Germans cannot besiege or invest Paris. 
Its size is too vast. Its defence will be assisted by 
the armies now fighting on the Oise, seventy miles 
away. 

" The fortifications of Paris are by no means the 
feeble things they were in 1870. From the Eiffel 
Tower we can control the movements in co-opera- 
tion with our armies in the provinces of France. 

" The situation is in no way desperate, although 
the Germans have invaded France. France will 
fight on and on until this attempt to establish 
tyranny in Europe is overthrown." 



[144] 



Monday, August 31, 
Twenty - ninth day of the war. Hot, some- 
what hazy, summer weather, with faint northerly 
wind. Thermometer at five P. m. 27 degrees cen- 
tigrade. 

Kaiser WiUiam, who it appears was on the field 
during the battle of Charleroi, is pressing forward 
in hot haste, regardless of consequences, on the 
road to Paris, close behind the steel-tipped elite of 
his vast armies, consisting of the Royal Prussian 
Guard Corps and the famous Third Army Corps. 
To-morrow will be the anniversary of the Battle of 
Sedan. The "Mailed Fist" is domg his best to 
celebrate it by leading his legions to Paris. It is 
daredevil desperation that spurs him on, for no- 
where, as yet, have the Franco-British armies been 
broken through, and they continue to present succes- 
sive stone walls to the Teuton invasion, and oppose 
every inch of ground with dogged tenacity. The allied 
left wing has been forced — always by the tradi- 
tional enveloping tactics on their right — to retreat, 
but they do so sullenly and in good order, making 

[145] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

the Germans pay dearly for every step gained. The 
battle is raging continuously, and much depends 
upon which side first receives strong re-enforce- 
ments to fill up the gaps made by tremendous losses. 
The Russian advance in East Prussia, according to 
accounts from Brussels, has already forced the 
Germans to send back to Berlin from their center 
at least one army corps. 

There is hurry and skurry all day long among 
Parisians and foreign residents to get away from 
Paris to more peaceful towns in the south and west. 
The railway stations are so crowded that it is almost 
impossible, at the Gare of Saint-Lazare or at the 
Quai d'Orsay to get anywhere near the booking 
office. Motor-cabs are being hired at extravagant 
prices to convey families to Tours, Orleans, Le 
Mans, or Bordeaux. The bearing of the public 
however by no means resembles that of " nerves," 
and less still a panic. 

I lunched to-day with Mr. Hulme Beaman, cor- 
respondent of the London Standard, and his charm- 
ing wife, who live just across the way from me, in 
the Boulevard de Courcelles. Mr. Beaman passed 
Sunday at Poissy, where he usually goes fishing for 
gudgeon. At Acheres, the junction of the lines from 

[146] 




Copyright by international News Service.' 



Wounded French soldiers returning to Paris with trophies from 
the battlefields. 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Picardy and Belgium, he saw train after train filled 
with wounded French soldiers, who seemed in good 
spirits and who, in spite of their suffering, were 
burning to get back again to the front. 

Another German air-lieutenant made a flight over 
Paris this afternoon and dropped two bombs near 
the Notre Dame Cathedral, but caused no damage; 
one of the projectiles fell into the Seine. The air- 
man also tossed into Paris a German flag, to which 
was tied a postal card calling upon Paris to sur- 
render. Groups watched the aeroplane, which 
never came lower than fifteen hundred meters, and 
women and children seemed rather amused at the 
sight. 

A fugitive from Belgium, who was at Louvain 
shortly before the wilful destruction of the once 
beautiful university town, tells a curious story of a 
Dutchman who had a thrilling escape on the arrival 
of the Germans. He rushed for the Dutch flag, 
which, in his nervousness, he hoisted outside his door 
upside down. This then represented the French 
flag, and the Dutchman, who spoke no German, 
was immediately seized by the enemy and ordered 
to be shot. He was placed upright against a wall 
and was about to be riddled with bullets when his 

[147] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

employer rushed up and told the Germans that they 
were going to shoot a Dutchman, which saved his 
life. 

General Gallieni, Governor of Paris, has issued a 
decree prohibiting newspapers to publish " spread- 
head " lines extending over two columns in width. 
The news vendors are not allowed to shout out the 
news, or even the names of the papers on the streets. 
The type of head-lines must not be of alarming size. 
In fact, a world-wide war was required to check 
the march of the sensational Paris ** yellow " 
press. 

The Minister of War has suppressed sauf-conduits 
for travelers leaving Paris by rail, but they must 
be provided with proper identification papers. The 
laisser-passer, delivered by the Prefecture of Police, 
is still required however for all who leave Paris by 
automobile. 

The American committee, in a circular to Ameri- 
cans, signed by Judge Elbert H. Gary, chairman, 
and H. Herman Harjes, secretary, gives a warning 
against sensational reports about the " imminent 
occupation " of the city by the Germans, but ex- 
presses the opinion that " it would be wise for Ameri- 
cans who cannot be of special service during the 

[148] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

war, or who are not required to remain by their 
business or professional interests, to leave the city 
in an orderly and quiet way, whenever reasonable 
opportunity is offered." 



149] 



Tuesday, September 1. 

Thirtieth day of the war, and forty -fourth anni- 
versary of the Battle of Sedan. Oppressive sultry 
weather, with northeasterly wind. Thermometer 
at five p. M. 23 degrees centigrade. 

The War Office communique to-night states that: 
*' on our left wing, in consequence of the enveloping 
movement of the Germans and with the object of 
not entering into a decisive action under bad con- 
ditions, our troops have fallen back, some towards 
the south and others towards the southwest. The 
action which took place in the district of R-ethel has 
enabled our forces to stop the enemy for the time 
being. In the center and on the right (Woevre, 
Lorraine, and the Vosges), there is no change in the 
situation." 

This means that Emperor William is hacking 
his way still nearer to Paris. The failure however to 
realize his boast that he would celebrate the anni- 
versary of Sedan by appearing within striking dis- 
tance of the French capital may indicate that the 
turning point of this phase of the war is near at hand. 

[150] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

The allied troops north of Paris have established 
themselves in a fighting position more favorable 
than that into which an attempt was made to draw 
them. The dam still holds good, and breaches are 
being repaired. 

The people of Paris are quite calm, in spite of false 
rumors and of pyrotechnics aloft executed by the 
German taubes. 

At quarter past five this afternoon, I was walking 
across the Place de la Bourse to file a cable message 
to the New York Tribune. I heard a loud explosion, 
followed by clashing of broken glass. A projectile 
had fallen a hundred yards distant and hit the top 
of a house in the Rue de Hanovre. The 'pompiers 
were on the spot within three minutes, having been 
summoned by the fire-alarm box near the Bourse. 
No serious damage was done, but little lead pellets 
were found in profusion. When I heard the ex- 
plosion, I looked up and saw an aeroplane at an 
altitude of about fourteen hundred meters vanishing 
towards the northeast. It was pale yellow, and 
white near the after part. It was a German taube. 
A sand-bag with a German Uhlan's pennant was 
dropped, bearing a card reminding Parisians that it 
was " the anniversary of Sedan, that they would soon 

[151] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

be obliged to surrender the city, and that the Rus- 
sians had been crushed on the Prussian frontier." 
Another bomb had been dropped on the roof of 
Number 29 Rue du Mail and broke into an empty 
room, but did not explode. A third bomb fell on a 
schoolhouse in the Rue Colbert; ricochetting off the 
wall, it fell into a courtyard, where it exploded and 
made a hole in the ground. Other bombs were 
dropped in the Rue de Londres and in the Rue de la 
Condamine; the last one injured a woman and a 
little girl, who were hit in the chest and head by 
fragments of the projectile. As the taube passed 
over the Pepiniere barracks, and the Place de 
rOpera, at an altitude of perhaps twelve hundred 
meters, some soldiers fired at it with their rifles, 
but without effect. The German air-lieutenants 
have so far avoided the Eiffel Tower, where machine 
guns are placed. 

The War Office announces that a flotilla of ar- 
mored aeroplanes provided with machine guns has 
been organized to attack the German aeroplanes 
that fly over Paris. Spectacular sights are thus in 
store for us. 

The American committee, constituted by the 
American Ambassador and including some of the 

[152] 




Pi 

o 
o 



p^ 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

most eminent Americans residing in Paris on the 
day of the declaration of war, has requested the 
Minister of War to supply it with formal proofs of 
the fact that the bombs which have fallen in Paris 
were thrown from a German aeroplane. 

M. Millerand, in response to this request, has 
submitted to the American Ambassador and two 
delegates from the committee the complete " dos- 
sier. 

The Ambassador, after having examined the evi- 
dence submitted to him, and to the members of the 
committee, decided to cable a report to his Govern- 
ment concerning these methods of warfare, which 
are not only acts against humanity, but, further, 
are in absolute violation of The Hague Convention, 
signed by Germany herself. 

The committee has also decided to ask the Ameri- 
can Government, while remaining loyal to its decla- 
ration of neutrality, to make a strong protest to 
the German Government. 

The Minister of War has issued a decree calling 
up territorial reservists of all classes in the north 
and northeastern districts of France, not yet with 
the colors. 

The French " left wing ", which, as foreseen more 
[153] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

than twenty years ago, must be the vulnerable spot 
in the defence of Paris, will very likely be forced to 
retire still nearer to the capital. In that case, a 
battle would be likely under the shelter of the Paris 
forts, which encircle the city at from thirty to forty 
kilometers from the Notre Dame. This belt of 
forts, connected by three lines of formidable en- 
trenchments and rifle pits, now being dug, not only 
by the troops, but by thousands of Paris workmen 
out of regular employment, make a circumference 
of two hundred kilometers, or about one hundred 
and twenty-five miles. This line of defence would 
protect Paris and also a field army with all its own 
resources, and probably make it impossible for the 
Germans to completely invest the city, as they did 
in 1870. Meanwhile the allied armies outside of 
Paris would be able to keep the rest of the German 
armies " busy ", and threaten the long line of Ger- 
man communications. Paris would thus be able to 
hold out for a long time. The Germans would 
obtain food supplies from the rich country that they 
occupy, but their supplies of ammunition, and of 
men to fill gaps in the fighting units of the first line, 
must become precarious. Meanwhile the Ri^ssian 
" steam-roller " is moving towards Berlin. >, 

[154] -V 



PAMS WAR DAYS 

At six o'clock this evening the following decree 
was issued by the Prefecture of Police: 

" By order of the Military Governor of Paris, 
no civilian automobile carriage will be allowed to 
leave Paris from to-day. This order has been im- 
mediately enforced." 

Streams of people from the regions to the north of 
Paris within the sphere of the German operations 
are swarming into Paris, bringing their belongings 
with them. I saw a train pull slowly into the Gare 
du Nord laden with about fifteen hundred peasants 
— old men, women, children — encumbered with 
bags, boxes, bundles, fowls, and provisions of vari- 
ous kinds. The station is strewn with straw, on 
which country folk fleeing from the Germans are 
soundly sleeping for the first time in many days. 
These refugees are being shunted on to the chemin 
de fer de la ceinture and proceed around the city to 
other stations, from which they are transported 
towards the south. 

Tens of thousands of Parisians throng the rail- 
way stations, seeking their turn to buy tickets to 
points outside the city. At the Gare de Lyon, 
Montparnasse, d'Orsay, d'Orleans, people are stand- 
ing in lines ten abreast and a quarter of a mile in 

[155] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

length, waiting for hours and hours to book for 
Bordeaux, Biarritz, Brest, Rennes, or Nantes. 
Some of these people have waited from seven in the 
morning until three in the afternoon to obtain 
tickets. 

If matters get worse, President Poincare and the 
Ministry will establish themselves at Bordeaux. 
Ambassador Herrick intends to remain in Paris, as 
Minister Elihu Washburne did in 1870. He will 
delegate a secretary to represent the United States 
Embassy at the seat of government. Perhaps 
Mr. Sharp, the newly appointed Ambassador, might 
be utilized for this purpose. 

A convoy of one hundred and forty British sol- 
diers, wounded in the recent fighting in the Aisne 
Department, arrived at nine o'clock this morning 
at the Gare du Nord. 

Most of them were shot in the legs and arms, but 
in spite of their sufferings, none of them showed the 
least sign of being broken in spirit. As they were 
transported from the train, there were touching 
demonstrations of sympathy from the crowd, which 
the wounded men acknowledged to the best of their 
ability. 

By a pretty little attention on the part of the Red 
[156] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Cross workers in Chantilly, all the men wore a 
flower and had been the recipients of refreshments 
and fair words of encouragement. 

There was quite a procession of wounded of vari- 
ous nationalities at the station, and scenes were 
witnessed which caused the tears to start in many 
eyes. A group of Belgian soldiers, including several 
wounded, encountered the British convoy on their 
arrival, and hearty handshakes were exchanged. 

Half an hour after the arrival of the British 
wounded, a party of thirty Turcos wounded in the 
battle of Guise came in and were in turn accorded 
an ovation. According to one of the men, they 
fought for nine days and nights without a break, 
but were gratified in the end by beating back the 
enemy. With one voice they declared that they 
are impatient to get back again into the fighting 
line. 

A British private, wounded in the leg by a German 
shell, described the fighting around Mons on Sunday 
week as " terrific.'* They first got the German 
shell fire quite unexpectedly near the railway sta- 
tion. Two of their battalions marched through the 
streets of Mons and were fired on from house win- 
dows by the Germans. Some of the German shells, 

[157] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

he said, were filled with broken glass and emitted a 
suffocating gas when they exploded. 

Mr. Elbert H. Gary, chairman of the American 
Committee, left to-day by automobile for Havre, 
whence he expects to start for New York on Satur- 
day on the France. It was decided at the meeting 
of the committee yesterday afternoon that Mr. 
Gary should, though absent, retain the chairman- 
ship, with Mr. H. Herman Harjes, the secretary, 
acting as presiding officer. Mr. Lazo, the assistant 
secretary, becomes secretary in Mr. Harjes' place. 

Mr. F. E. Drake, Major Clyde M. Hunt, Mr. 
Henry S. Downe and Mr. W. H. Ingram were added 
to the membership of the committee. 



[158] 



Wednesday, September 2. 

Thirty - first day of the war. Beautifully clear 
weather, cloudless sky, northeasterly wind. Tem- 
perature at five p. M. 25 degrees centigrade. 

German prisoners declare that Emperor William 
has made it known to every soldier that his 
orders are to " take Paris or die." A German 
cavalry division came into contact with British 
troops yesterday in the forest of Compiegne. The 
British captured ten field guns. But the right wing 
of the German army, which ever since the battles 
of Charleroi and Mons has enveloped and turned 
the allied left, continues its advance. The allied 
troops have retired partly to the south and partly 
to the southwest. A great battle must conse- 
quently take place within the range of the Paris 
forts. Work on the entrenched lines connecting the 
forts is actively carried out and is said to give every 
satisfaction. The positions, believed to be im- 
pregnable, are strengthened by ingenious arrange- 
ments of barbed wire. It is reported that some of 
this barbed entanglement contains live wires fed 
by the electric batteries of the defence. 

[159] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

In a stirring editorial in his newspaper L'Homme 
Libre y M. Georges Clemen geau frankly faces the 
situation now that " the Germans are close to 
Paris." He adds: " We have left open the approach 
to Paris, while reserving to ourselves flank attacks 
on the enemy. If the forts do their duty, this move 
may be a happy one. From what we have seen 
of him, General Joffre belongs to the temporizing 
school. At this moment there are no better tactics. 
The supreme art will be to seize the instant when 
temporization must give way to a carefully prepared 
offensive movement. I have full confidence in 
General Joffre." 

Lord Kitchener made a rapid incognito visit to 
Paris yesterday, where he met Field-marshal Sir 
John French. As far as can be ascertained. Lord 
Kitchener went to the front and had a conference 
with General Joffre. There seems to be no doubt 
but what General Joffre's plans have the heartiest 
approval and support of Lord Kitchener. French 
troops from the eastern theater of the war are being 
brought up rapidly, so as to attack the German lines 
of communications, possibly near Rethel. Reen- 
forcements are coming in rapidly from England, 
and a large new army has formed, at Le Mans, 

[160] 




General Joffre, Commander-in-Chief of the AUied Armies in 
France. 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

and will soon be ready to take the field with great 
effect. 

The usual six o'clock serenade of the German 
air-lieutenants this afternoon drew forth a few 
rifle shots from roofs of Paris houses, and even a 
quick-firing gun was discharged at one of these 
taubes. But the distance was too great, and the 
two German aeroplanes vanished shortly before 
seven in a northerly direction. 

This evening President Poincare and the French 
Government removed the seat of government from 
Paris to Bordeaux, and the following proclama- 
tion was issued: 

Frenchmen, 

For several weeks, during desperate fighting, our heroic 
troops have struggled with the enemy's army. Our sol- 
diers' valiance has brought them marked advantages on 
several points. But to the north the advance of the 
German forces has compelled us to draw back. 

This situation imposes on the President of the Re- 
public and the Government a painful decision. To safe- 
guard the national salvation, the public powers have as a 
duty momentarily to leave the city of Paris. 

Under the command of an eminent leader, a French 
army, full of courage and zest, will defend the capital 
and its patriotic population against the invader. But 
the war must be pursued at the same time over the rest 
of the land. 

[161] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Without peace or truce, without halt or faltering, the 
sacred struggle for the honor of the nation and the repa- 
ration of violated right will be continued. 

None of our armies is cut into. If some of them have 
undergone losses — too great losses — the vacant places 
have been immediately filled by the depots, and the call 
of the recruits ensures for us for to-morrow further re- 
sources of men and energies. 

Fight and stand firm — such must be the watchword 
of the allied armies, British, Russian, Belgian, and French. 

Fight and stand firm; while on the sea the British help 
us to cut our enemy's line of communications with the 
outside world. 

Fight and stand firm; while the Russians continue to 
advance to strike the decisive blow in the heart of the 
German Empire. 

It is the duty of the Government of the Republic to 
direct this stubborn resistance. 

Frenchmen will rise on every side for the sake of in- 
dependence. But in order that this formidable struggle 
shall be conducted as efficaciously and with as much 
spirit as possible, it is essential that the Government 
should be left free to act. 

At the request of the military authorities, therefore, the 
Govermnent will be temporarily transferred to a point 
in French territory where it can remain in constant rela- 
tions with the whole of the country. 

The Government requests members of Parliament not 
to remain too distant from it, in order that, in conjunction 
with them and with their colleagues, they may be able to 
form a solid core of national unity in the face of the 
enemy. 

The Government leaves Paris only after having as- 

[162] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

sured, by every means within its power, the defence of the 
city and the entrenched camp. 

It knows that there is no necessity to recommend the 
admirable population of Paris to remain calm, resolute, 
and self-possessed. Every day the people show that it 
is equal to this highest duty. 
Frenchmen, 

Let us be worthy of these tragic circumstances. We 
shall win the victory finally. 

We shall win it by untiring will, endurance, and te- 
nacity. 

A nation which is determined not to perish, and which 
recoils neither before suffering nor sacrifice, is sure to 
conquer. 

This proclamation had a good effect on the popu- 
lation. 

The wife of my concierge voiced the popular sen- 
timent when she said this evening: "Ah! Monsieur! 
We may have some pretty bad quarts d'keures here, 
but we have such confidence that all must end well, 
that my husband's old mother and our little children 
will remain in Paris with us." This remark was 
made five minutes after a German air-lieutenant 
had flown over the roof of the houses in my street. 
Rue Theodule Ribot, and had dropped near the 
Pare Monceau a bomb that made a terrific noise, 
but did no damage. 

[163] 



Thursday y September 3. 

Thirty - second day of the war. Dazzling sun- 
shine, cloudless sky, and light northeasterly wind. 
Thermometer at five p. m. 27 degrees centigrade. 

The forward movement of the Germans, the 
" Paris or Death " rush of the Kaiser, seems, for 
a moment at least, to have come to a standstill. 
Although precautions had been taken in expectation 
of a German attack from the region of Compiegne- 
Senlis, no contact, says the French official com- 
munique^ occurred to-day. In the northeast all is 
reported quiet. 

Disappointed Parisians scanned the sky in vain 
for their five o'clock tauhe. A marchand-de-vin on 
the famous " Butte " of Montmartre arranged a 
tribune with numbered seats commanding a splen- 
did view of the city. Field-glasses were on hand 
for hire. Orchestra stalls were paid for at the rate 
of ten cents a seat. The performance was an- 
nounced to begin at half-past five. This worked 
very well yesterday, when the evolutions of the two 
German air-lieutenants, accompanied by pyrotechnic 

[164] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

display, netted a lucrative harvest. To-day, how- 
ever, the enterprising theatrical manager was forced 
by his public to return the money at the " box 
oflfice "; this was promptly done, the performance 
" being postponed." The postponement was due 
to the appearance of several French aeroplanes, 
which evidently had been sighted by the Germans. 

Now that the French Government has gone to 
Bordeaux and temporarily transferred the capital 
to Gascony, the only heads of the diplomatic corps 
remaining in Paris are the American Ambassador; 
the Spanish Ambassador, the Marquis de Villa 
Urrutia; the Swiss Minister, M. C. Lardy; the 
Danish Minister, M. H. A. Bernhoft; and the Nor- 
wegian Minister, Baron de Wedel Jarlsberg. 

That American property may be safeguarded, in 
the extremely improbable event of an occupation 
of the city by the Germans, Ambassador Herrick 
requests all American citizens owning or leasing 
houses or apartments in the city of Paris or its 
vicinity to register their names, with descriptions 
of their dwellings, at the Embassy. If worse comes 
to the worst, notices will be posted on American 
dwellings, giving them the protection of the Ameri- 
can flag. 

[165] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Mr. Robert Bacon, former Ambassador to France, 
is stopping at the Hotel de Crillon in the Place 
Vendome. He lunched to-day with Mr. Herrick, 
and both express optimistic views of the situation 
from mihtary, diplomatic, and financial standpoints. 

My servant, Felicien, telephoned me from Auber- 
villier, some ten kilometers from Paris, saying that 
he, together with four men of his squadron, had 
become separated from his regiment, the Thirty- 
second Dragoons. They had lost their horses in the 
marshes and woods near Chantilly during a cavalry 
engagement and had been instructed to make their 
way to Paris and rejoin their regimental dep6t at 
Versailles. The party was in charge of their ser- 
geant, who explained that the regiment had at first 
been sent towards Metz, where they took part in 
the daily fighting all along the line there, and that 
suddenly they were entrained and rushed across 
country to Peronne, to check the advance of the 
Germans in their march upon Paris. This seems to 
indicate that the French generals did not fully 
appreciate until too late the really vital importance 
of the concentrated rush upon Paris of the right 
wing of the German armies, where all their strength 
had been assembled. The dragoons seemed pretty 

[166] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

worn out, but were in good spirits and anxious to 
get back again in the fighting line. But they must 
go to Versailles to obtain their remounts. Sophie 
made a succulent lunch for them in the kitchen. 
They ate beefsteak, potatoes, cabbage, fruit, rice, 
and cheese, washed down with half a dozen bottles 
of light claret. 

Every one seems to be trying to get away from 
Paris. It is a sort of exodus. I watched my oppo- 
site neighbors. Baron and Baroness Pierre de Bour- 
going — the latter better known as Suzanne Reichen- 
berg of the Comedie Frangaise — getting into their 
motor-car at half-past five this morning, accom- 
panied by a maid and a pet dog. Baron de Bour- 
going was in the uniform of a captain of territorials. 
He will go with his wife as far as the outer fortifica- 
tions in the direction of Versailles. 

The news of the election of Cardinal Jacques della 
Chiesa as Pope, with the title Benoit XV, does not 
arouse as much public interest here as does the 
nomination of M. Emile Laurent as Prefect of 
Police, in place of M. Hennion who, on account of 
ill health, retires at his own request. M. Laurent 
has for twenty-three years been secretary-general 
of the Prefecture of Police. He was born in 1852. 

[167] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

He is thoroughly famiHar with every phase of Paris 
life. He is a man of great energy and of prompt 
decision. He is a very kind-hearted man and has 
done much toward relieving misery in the capital. 
The appointment is a very popular one and gives 
general satisfaction. 



[168] 



Friday, September ^. 

Thirty - third day of the war. Hot, sultry day 
with hght northeast wind. Thunderstorm, with 
heavy rain in the evening. Temperature at five 
p, M. 28 degrees centigrade. 

Americans still left in Paris were very busy to-day 
registering their addresses at the chancellery of the 
Embassy in the Rue de Chaillot. They had to have 
their leases with them. I registered for my little 
place at Vernon and also for my apartment in the 
Rue Theodule Ribot. Among well known Ameri- 
cans whom I saw at the chancellery were Messrs. 
James Gordon Bennett, De Courcey Forbes, Julius 
and Robert Stewart, William Morton Fullerton, 
Mrs. Duer, formerly Mrs. Clarence Mackay, Dr. 
Joseph Blake, and about a hundred others. All 
sorts of wild rumors about the approaching Ger- 
mans were current. One tremulous little lady said 
that " when the Germans entered the forest of 
Compiegne, the French set fire to the woods, and 

[169] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

then shot down the Germans like rabbits as they 
fled from the burning thicket! " 

I met here Mr. Robert Dunn, war correspondent 
of the New York Evening Post, who is the only news- 
paper man I have talked with who really saw the 
fighting near La Cateau and Saint Quentin. Mr. 
Dunn went on a train with his bicycle last week, 
provided only with a laisser-passer for Aulnay in 
the Department of the North. The train was 
brought to a stop near Aulnay, and the passengers 
were informed that German cavalry occupied the 
line a couple of kilometers further on. Every one 
got out. Mr. Dunn jumped on his bicycle and 
wheeled off to La Cateau. Here he met the British 
retreating in good order. He remained with them 
as they retired toward Saint Quentin. He saw them 
spread out in thin lines and pick off the German 
gunners by their splendid marksmanship. Most of 
the British were wounded by shells. Very few of 
them had bullet wounds. At Saint Quentin a few 
Highlanders came limping along, thoroughly ex- 
hausted with their five days' continuous fighting. 
But although pale and hungry, their jaws were set 
with determined grit. Their superb pluck impressed 
Mr. Dunn immensely. As they were sitting at a 

[ 170 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

cafe, some French soldiers led away a German spy, 
with a towel wrapped around his eyes. The man 
was executed. 

I met a British staff officer at Brentano's book- 
store, as he was buying maps of the environs of 
Paris. I told him that Lord Kitchener had been to 
Paris and had conferred with M. Millerand, the 
French Minister of War. The officer said: "I am 
glad to hear of that, because at a certain phase of 
the fighting in the north, the French completely 
failed to support us." 

I called upon Mr. William G. Sharp, the newly 
appointed United States Ambassador, and upon 
Mr. Robert Bacon, the former United States Am- 
bassador. Both are stopping at the Hotel de Crillon. 
The Paris newspapers seem highly pleased at this 
" strong diplomatic manifestation " — the American 
Ambassador of yesterday, the American Ambassador 
of to-day, and the American Ambassador of to-mor- 
row — constituting a delegation from the United 
States to see that the rights of universal humanity 
are respected. Parisians salute the Star Spangled 
Banner as it floats over the American Embassy as 
the symbol of the " World's Vigilance against Bar- 
barity ", — such are the words of La Liberti. M. 

[m] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Gabriel Hanotaux, writing in the Figaro, attaches 
equal importance to the attitude of the United 
States as interpreted by its three representatives, 
saying: "Mr. Herrick is very happily not leaving 
us. He has followed the whole course of events 
which led to this fatal war, watching with a just 
and noble spirit. He has kept his Government ac- 
curately informed of all, and he will continue at the 
head of the Embassy." 

The Matin says, " that of all the diplomatists 
accredited to France, it was Mr. Herrick who took 
the gallant initiative to remain in Paris, and Paris- 
ians deeply appreciate this. In making this choice, 
Mr. Herrick said that he regarded Paris not only 
as the capital of France, but as that * Metropolis of 
the World ' spoken of by Marcus Aurelius. He feels 
that he is the American Ambassador to both these 
cities. In his eyes this * Metropolis of the World ' 
possesses a Government, invisible doubtless, but 
perpetually present, and one with which he wishes 
to remain in touch. It is at one and the same time 
to Paris, in its period of trial, and to the fatherland 
of the human race, that Mr. Herrick wishes to give 
the pledge of his affection. Thus he is remaining as 
a link between those of his compatriots who are 

[172] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

residing among us and the citizens of the free Re- 
pubHc across the sea that has more than once de- 
clared itself the sister Republic and which professes 
as much love for our ' traditions ' as we ourselves 
esteem the passion for ' progress ', of which it gives 
the example." 



[173] 



Saturday, September 5. 

Thirty - fourth day of the war. Hazy autumnal 
morning, clear and hot in the afternoon, with light 
northerly breeze. Thermometer at five p. m. 26 
degrees centigrade. 

Germans appear to have evacuated the Com- 
piegne-Senlis region, and are apparently moving 
towards the southeast, thus continuing a movement 
that began on Friday. General Cherfils, the mili- 
tary critic of the Gaulois, taking a very optimistic 
view of the situation, thinks the movement may be 
to assure a retreat by some route other than by a 
return through Belgium. General Cherfils says: 
" This rush of the German right wing upon Paris 
is the last bluff of terrorism of the last German 
Emperor! The Kaiser thought that he could 
frighten us and induce France to make peace. I After 
which he would be free to return with his armies 
against Russia." 

Mr. d'Arcy Morel, the financial correspondent of 
the London Daily Telegraph, came to see me to-day. 

[174] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

He lives at Reuil, in the military zone northwest of 
Fort Mount- Valerian. He had been up all night, 
getting his belongings to Paris, and had just sent 
his little daughter to Dieppe on her way to England. 
Mr. Morel said that the night trains out of Paris 
at the Gare Saint-Lazare were filled to overflowing. 
No lights were permitted in the cars, and a dozen 
soldiers with loaded rifles were placed in a car just 
behind the locomotive, and a dozen more soldiers 
at the rear end of the train. These trains stop at 
every station and take about ten hours to reach 
Dieppe, instead of four hours as usual. Precautions 
of guarding the trains are made because several 
German armored motor-cars had been signalled 
dashing about near Marly and Pontoise. The 
gardener of my little place at Vernon, which is on 
the western line of the Seine, at a point where it is 
intersected by a strategic line between Chartres 
in the south and Gisors and Beauvais in the north, 
seems to be confident that Vernon will not be occu- 
pied by the Germans, for he managed to send me 
to-day a big basket full of peaches, pears, string 
beans, and green corn. 

To-day the first oysters make their appearance! 
This event, trivial in itself, is significant as showing 

[175] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

that the Paris central markets are able to supply 
Parisians not only with necessities but with luxu- 
ries. The mute oyster that comes in with the 
months having the letter " R " in their names bears 
eloquent testimony to uninterrupted communica- 
tions. 

I looked in for a few moments this afternoon at 
the National Library in the Rue de Richelieu. No 
signs of war here! A score of inveterate bookworms 
were pondering over dusty volumes, inquisitive 
writers were exploring literature bearing upon the 
war of 1870, seeking precedents and parallels for 
coming events; a few ladies were looking up files 
of old newspapers and fashion plates. The National 
Library seemed exactly as in the most peaceful days. 

I lunched to-day at the restaurant Beauge, in the 
Rue Saint-Marc, a favorite resort of journalists. 
The manager told me that it would be closed that 
evening. It seems that he had received a " third 
warning " not to keep open after half -past nine. 
As he could never pluck up courage to eject his 
customers while enjoying succulent repasts, he de- 
cided to shut up his place altogether. The sugges- 
tion made by an Irishman, Mr. Sullivan of Renter's 
Agency, to employ a London " chucker-out " did 

[176] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

not at all appeal to his notions of the traditions of 
Parisian gastronomic hospitality. 

I met to-day another British officer buying books 
at Brentano's. He gave me a picturesque description 
of the German method of advance. " It is the 
scientific development of the wild, fanatic, life- 
regardless, condensed rush of the Soudan dervishes," 
he said. " The Germans mass together all their big 
field guns. They close in around them serried in- 
fantry, goaded on by their wonderful, machine- 
made, non-commissioned officers, who prick them 
with sword bayonets, and whenever, from wounds 
or from sheer exhaustion, men fall out, they are 
shoved aside, to die by the roadside, or to be 
trampled under foot, like mechanical tools that 
have become useless. The German officers and non- 
commissioned officers are utterly regardless of life. 
The German flanks are protected by quantities of 
machine guns placed so close together that their 
gunners jostle one another. This strange engine of 
modern warfare creeps on like a monster of the 
apocalypse, carrying all before it. Aeroplanes hov- 
ering over the fronts of the columns direct move- 
ments by signalling. The dense, serried mass of 
infantry offers a splendid target. The losses must 

[ 177 1 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

have been frightful — exceeding anything recorded 
in modern war. The German infantry are poor 
marksmen. They don't know how to shoot. 
Scarcely any of our men were wounded by bullets. 
Nearly all the wounds were inflicted by shells." 

The Marquis de Valtierra has been appointed 
Spanish Ambassador to the French Republic, in 
place of the Marquis de Villa Urrutia, who has 
resigned. The new Ambassador, who has presented 
his credentials to President Poincare at Bordeaux, 
and who is expected to arrive in Paris to-morrow, 
has not followed a diplomatic career. He is a cap- 
tain-general — a title corresponding with that of 
an army corps commander in France — and until a 
few days ago was in command of the military region 
of Burgos. 

News that the representatives of France, Great 
Britain, and Russia have signed an agreement in 
London not to make peace without previous under- 
standing with the others, meets with popular ap- 
proval here, and is taken as further evidence that 
the allies are determined to fight the war to a finish. 



[178] 



Sunday^ September 6. 

Thirty - fifth day of the war. Ideal September 
weather, with light easterly wind. Temperature at 
five p. M. 24 degrees centigrade. The moon is now 
full. 

Instead of making a ferocious attaque hrusquee on 
Paris, the four army corps composing the German 
right wing are moving southeastward, in a supreme 
effort to crush the left flank of the French center, 
which is reported to be engaged with the main 
German forces near Rethel, striving to cut off 
and surround the French center, and thus achieve a 
second, but far more gigantic, Sedan. In any event, 
the Germans are certainly moving away from Paris 
to the southeast. 

Paris assumes a holiday aspect. Thousands of 
people made excursions to the suburbs of the city, 
and particularly to the Bois de Boulogne, to see 
something of the preparations for the defence. Boys 
and girls from boarding-schools, under care of their 
teachers, were among those who watched gangs of 

[179] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

men digging wide and deep trenches, while trees that 
obstructed the ground in the vicinity were being 
cut down. 

The daily crop of Paris newspapers is becoming 
beautifully less. The Temps published its last Paris 
issue on Friday and has transferred its headquarters 
to Bordeaux. M. Georges Clemengeau's Homme 
Libre has ceased to appear. So also have the Gil 
Bias and Autorite. The Daily Mail has migrated to 
Bordeaux. Most of the newspapers that remain are 
published on a single sheet. The veteran Journal 
des Debats announces that for one hundred and 
twenty-five years it has appeared in Paris, being 
interrupted only at rare and brief intervals when 
provisional governments, resulting from violence, 
by brute force prevented publication. Le Journal 
des DSbats will continue to be printed and published 
in Paris " so long as it is materially possible to do 
so." M. Arthur Meyer, editor and proprietor of Le 
Gaulois, announces that he will " remain in Paris in 
1914 as he did in 1870." He will continue to edit 
and publish the Gaulois in Paris, having around him 
" a small family of editors and reporters, who replace 
my own family, now, Alas! far away! " The Echo 
de Paris continues to publish each day an edition 

[180] 




03 



o3 



03 



bX) 



-i4 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

of four pages. So also does Le Figaro. The Matin 
and LiherU appear on single sheets. 

The European edition of the New York Herald 
appears every day on its nice white glazed papier de 
luxe, in a four-page edition Sundays, and on a single 
sheet on week days. The Paris Herald, as it is 
familiarly called, is printed haK in English and half 
in French. The war has not frightened away the 
venerable " Old Philadelphia Lady '*, who daily 
continues, as she has done since Christmas eve, 
1899, to put the following question: 

To THE Editor of the Herald : — 

I am anxious to find out the way to figure the tem- 
perature from Centigrade to Fahrenheit and vice-versd. 
In other words, I want to know, whenever I see the tem- 
perature designated on Centigrade thermometer, how to 
find out what it would be on Fahrenheit's thermometer. 

Old Philadelphia. Lady. 

Paris, December 24, 1899. 



[181] 



Monday, September 7. 

Thirty - sixth day of the war. Hot September 
weather, with brisk east wind. Temperature at 
five P. M. 24 degrees centigrade. 

The great battle begun Sunday morning continues 
with sHght advantages obtained by the allies and 
extends over a front of one hundred and thirty miles, 
from Nanteuil le Haudoin, on the allied left, to 
Verdun. The allies occupy very strong positions. 
Their left is supported by Paris, their right by the 
fortresses of Verdun, and their center by the en- 
trenched camps of Mailly, just south of Vitry-le- 
Frangois. 

About thirty American and English newspaper 
men met at lunch to-day at the restaurant Hubin, 
Number 22 Rue Brouot. Among those present 
were FuUerton, Grundy, MacAlpin, Williams, Knox, 
Reeves, O'Niel, Sims, and others. Every one was 
in fine spirits, the trend of feeling being that Paris 
was the most interesting place to be in just now, and 
that perhaps the best story of the war may yet 
be written in Paris. 

[182] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

I drove in a cab with MacAlpin to the Gare du 
Nord to meet a train of British wounded that was 
expected to arrive there. We found the station al- 
most deserted. A reserve captain of the Forty -sixth 
Infantry, whose left forearm had been smashed by 
a shell, arrived and was very glad to get some hot 
soup provided by the railroad ambulance women. 
Saw a brigadier-general and his staff going full 
speed in a motor-car to the east. Artillery firing 
was heard this morning to the east of Paris, but was 
no longer audible after eleven a. m. While sitting 
at a cafe opposite the Gare du Nord, I noticed the 
huge statues of " Berlin " and " Vienna " over the 
front of the building, and wondered if they would 
remain intact during the war. Driving to the Gare 
de I'Est, we saw gangs of workmen with entrenching 
tools, going into trains, under the direction of en- 
gineer officers, to dig rifle pits. 

The sanitary condition of Paris is excellent. No 
epidemic of any kind is reported. There were sev- 
eral cases of scarlatina, but the number is insignifi- 
cant. 

The board of governors of the American Hospital 
has turned over its responsibility to the American 
Ambulance Committee, which will manage the 

[183] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Hospital service for the benefit of the French army, 
at the Lycee Pasteur, Neuilly. The committee is 
composed of William S. Dalliba, honorary chair- 
man, Reverend Doctor S. N. Watson, chairman, 
Messrs. Laurence B. Benet, Charles Carroll, F. W. 
Monahan, and I. V. Twyeffort. 

I met in the Rue de la Paix two Irish cavalry 
soldiers, who had become detached from their squad- 
ron during the operations north of Paris. " The 
last place we remember fighting at was Copenhagen," 
said one of the men. But on being further ques- 
tioned, it turned out that Copenhagen was Tip- 
perary dialect for Compiegne. 

The Herald has decided to remain in Paris, but 
its price will be twenty-five centimes instead of 
fifteen centimes. The reasons for the increased 
price are that advertisements, the main source of 
revenue for a newspaper, have almost completely 
disappeared. The Herald at present is being run 
at a loss of thirty-five thousand francs a week. As 
the editor points out: " This may be journalism, 
but it is not business." The increased price will 
probably diminish the weekly loss. 



[184] 



Tuesday, September 8. 

Thirty - seventh day of the war. Cloudy 
weather with rain in the afternoon. Brisk south- 
easterly wind. Thermometer at five p. m. 22 de- 
grees centigrade. 

The allied armies are more than holding their 
own on the vast line between the Ourcq and Verdun. 
Meanwhile all precautions are being taken by the 
Military Government of Paris for an eventual siege. 
The Bois de Boulogne resembles a cattle ranch. 
The census of the civil population of the " en- 
trenched camp of Paris ", just taken with a view of 
providing rations during a possible siege, shows that 
there are 887,267 families residing in Paris, repre- 
senting a total of 2,106,786 individuals of all ages 
and both sexes. This is a decrease of thirty per 
cent, since the last census in 1911. The health of 
the city is excellent. The census sheets notify in- 
habitants that gas during a siege must be used ex- 
clusively for lighting purposes and never for cook- 
ing or heating. This will cause some tribulation in 
the small menages, where the cheap, popular, and 

[185] 



PABIS WAR DAYS 

handy gas-stove has replaced the coal or charcoal 
ovens and ranges. 

The rain came on this afternoon at four, while a 
large crowd of Parisians stood in the square in front 
of the church of Saint-Etienne du Mont, beside 
the Pantheon, but it failed to disperse the faithful, 
who were taking part in the outdoor service of hom- 
age to Sainte-Genevieve, the protectress of Paris, 
whose remains are buried in this small church of the 
Gothic-Renaissance period (1517-1620), one of the 
most beautiful of all the sacred edifices of France. 

Those who recently hastened away from Paris in 
search of a place of refuge, quiet, and safety, have 
met with many disappointments. The roads to 
Tours are blocked with vehicles of every description, 
many of them filled with refugees who have turned 
them into temporary dwellings. Automobiles are 
brought to a standstill for lack of benzol. Every- 
thing on the way from Paris to Bordeaux is requi- 
sitioned. At Orleans, people wander about vainly 
seeking a place in which to sleep. The town is filled. 
People buy ham and sausages, which they eat in 
cafes or in the streets. At Blois, the citizens offer 
to lodge refugees and travelers at the rate of five 
francs a day. The Blois people are very hospitable 

[186] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

and do not seek to unduly profit by the situation ^ 
The Grand Hotel is of course overflowing, but the 
prices remain the same as in ordinary times. At 
Tours, the inhabitants are less hospitable and more 
avaricious. One of the biggest hotels in the town 
asks fifty francs (ten dollars) for a simple armchair 
in which to pass the night. Three special trains 
yesterday carried away to Provence the inmates of 
the insane asylums of Bicetre and Charenton. It 
was a weird sight to see these men and women, 
utterly unconscious of the war, gazing with nervous 
uncertainty upon the strange scenes through which 
they were conducted to the Orleans Station, some- 
what like helpless fiocks of sheep. 

Shortly after leaving the large room at Number 
31 Boulevard des Invalides, where the official com- 
muniques are now given out to the French and for- 
eign press, I met a sergeant of an infantry regiment 
who had been wounded during the fighting between 
Coulommier and Ferte-Gaucher. " At daybreak on 
Sunday," he said, " we were sent forward to prevent 
the German infantry from making their favorite 
turning movement on our left wing. Our orders 
were to hold on to the enemy and prevent his ad- 
vance until the allied troops near Meaux had re- 

[187] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

pulsed the German attack being made in their 
direction. Early in the afternoon, the Germans 
retired from Meaux before the allied divisions. 
We advanced and drove them north of Ferte- 
Gaucher. The fighting lasted all night and became 
very severe on Monday morning, but shortly after- 
wards the Germans offered but slight resistance. 
For thirty kilometers we followed up two German 
infantry regiments, supported by their cavalry and 
a section of artillery. During their retreat, the 
Germans did not fire a single shot. We soon suc- 
ceeded in cutting off a detachment of infantry and 
in capturing seven field guns and two machine guns. 
One of the prisoners, an infantry sergeant, ad- 
mitted that his men were short of ammunition, and 
that their orders were to use as little of it as pos- 
sible. It was during the last combat that I was 
wounded in the thigh by a Prussian officer, who cut 
me with his sword as I was trying to disarm him." 
A wounded French infantry lieutenant says that 
the German troops seem " fatigued and fagged 
out." Another officer says that in the trenches near 
Coulommier, a dozen German infantry soldiers 
were found dead, having been killed by French .75 
millimeter shells, and were in the same attitudes of 

[188] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

firing that they had taken at the moment when 
they had been " crisped " by death. An Algerian 
Turco was found dead, grasping his rifle, the bay- 
onet of which had pierced and killed a German sol- 
dier. Both were corpses, but stood in grim death 
like a group of statuary. 

I received to-day a letter from my gardener at 
Vernon. He says that the roads are filled with 
refugees, who are being sent on to Brittany by way 
of Louviers. Motorists along the roads say that 
they have passed continuous lines of refugees, some- 
times seventy kilometers in length. The Chateau 
de Bizy is transformed into a hospital and so also 
is the Chateau des Penitents at Vernonnet. Most 
of the injured have slight wounds in the arms or 
legs. Many of them, after five days' treatment, 
are able to go back to the front. 



[189] 



Wednesday, September 9. 

Thirty - eighth day of the war. Somewhat 
cooler weather, with cloudy sky and with south to 
southwesterly wind, at times blowing in sharp gusts. 
Thermometer at five p. M. 21 degrees centigrade. 

The air is still overcharged with uncertainty as to 
the result of the great battle along the front of one 
hundred and twenty miles between the Ourcq and 
Verdun. Will the Germans succeed in forcing their 
tremendous wedge through the French center near 
Vitry and separate the allied armies to the west and 
around Paris, from the great French armies to the 
east and around Verdun .f* 

A German repulse means a German tragedy. 
But if they succeed in their bold move on the 
center, and separate the allied armies, they will 
gain a very great strategic success and can then 
turn their attention to the investment of a segment 
of the fortifications of Paris. 

Meanwhile the official communiquis given out at 
three p. m. and at eleven p. m., at the Military 
Government of Paris, are, to say the least, hopeful. 

[190] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Every attempt to break through the French lines 
on the Oiircq has failed. No change noted on the 
center and on the allied right. 

At two this afternoon I saw a small, low, dusty 
motor-car come spinning along the Boulevard des 
Invalides, containing four soldiers, who had v/ith 
them two German flags, captured this morning 
during the fighting near the Ourcq. They were 
bringing their trophies to General Gallieni, who 
conferred the Military Medal — the highest French 
distinction for valor in action — on the reserve 
infantry soldier Guillemard, who captured one of 
these flags in a hand-to-hand encounter. The flag 
belonged to the Thirty-sixth Prussian Infantry 
Regiment, the Magdeburg Fusiliers, and had been 
decorated with the Iron Cross in 1870. 

One of the French biplanes that scour the sky 
daily in search of German tauhes met with sad dis- 
aster yesterday while flying over the Bois de Vin- 
cennes. The aeroplane contained a lieutenant and 
a corporal of the aviation corps. A violent gust of 
wind capsized it, and it fell to the ground, burying 
the occupants in a heap of debris. When extri- 
cated, both were dead. A few moments after the 
biplane struck the earth, either its motor, or the 

[191] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

bombs that it had on board, exploded, and four 
passers-by were killed by flying fragments. Two 
of them were ten-year-old lads. A little girl and 
several other persons were more or less bruised. It 
so happened that I had watched this biplane from 
the Boulevard de Courcelles as it soared over Paris 
at a height of fifteen hundred meters. It was very 
steady in its movements and was going in an easterly 
direction. This must have been some ten minutes 
before the catastrophe. 

The committee of the National Society of Fine 
Arts held a meeting to-day at the Grand Palais, to 
render aid to painters, sculptors, and artists in 
need of assistance, without regard to nationality, 
passed resolutions of indignation at the injury of 
works of art in France and Belgium committed by 
the German armies, and at the destruction of the 
objects of art solicited by Germany and entrusted 
by France to the International Exhibition at Leip- 
sic, and unanimously voted to strike from the list 
of members the names of all artists of German 
nationality. 

The art critic of the Gil Bias, M. Louis Vauxelles, 
whose scathing criticisms of the " classic " pompier 
academic school of painting and of sculpture, and 

[192] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

whose intelligent censure of the extreme " futurist " 
clique elicit the hearty approval of all true lovers of 
art, in the United States, as well as in France, is 
serving as a simple soldier in an infantry regiment, 
but finds time occasionally to write to the Intransi- 
gSant picturesque descriptions of military life. 

I received a letter from a friend at Tours, where 
the refugees are becoming less numerous, but the 
hospitals on the contrary are nearly full of wounded. 
Comtesse Paul de Pourtales is doing splendid work 
there as the head of the Red Cross, and M. Gaston 
Menier, the popular senator, a warm personal friend 
of Mr. Andrew Carnegie and the owner of the great 
chocolate works, has turned his Chateau of Chenon- 
ceaux into a perfectly organized hospital with a 
corps of surgeons and professional nurses, which he 
maintains at his own expense. Nearly a hundred 
French wounded are already being cared for in the 
Chenonceaux hospital. As soon as they get well 
enough, they are sent back to rejoin their regiments. 
All the villas in the neighborhood of Tours are al- 
ready leased to families that have gone away from 
Paris. 

In accordance with the notices of the Military 
Governor of Paris, I was vaccinated against small- 

[193] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

pox to-day, together with all those now living in 
the house — in all twelve persons. 

Mr. William G. Sharp, who has been appointed 
to succeed Mr. Myron T. Herrick as American Am- 
bassador in France, remains here with his son, 
George, and is preparing to make himself familiar 
with the situation, so that when the proper time 
comes, he may take over his office. Mr. Sharp is 
already making headway with his somewhat theo- 
retical knowledge of French. He told me that the 
war had upset many diplomatic and other prece- 
dents. " It is quite obvious," he said, ** that at 
this critical period, Mr. Herrick could not desert 
his post, where his knowledge and experience have 
been so valuable." Mr. Sharp added: "It is 
needless to say that there will be no change of policy 
with my arrival as Ambassador to France. The 
friendship between the United States and France 
was never jfirmer than it is to-day. Personally, I 
am a fervent admirer of France, of French art, cul- 
ture, and science. 

" Probably no country in the world is more uni- 
versally admired for its high degree of civilization 
than France. But it is my duty, as the future 
representative of the United States, to be absolutely 

[194] 



PAKIS WAR DAYS 

neutral in everything concerning the present conflict. 
It cannot be too strongly stated that the United 
States Government will not swerve from its attitude 
of strict neutrality. The more impartial we remain, 
the stronger our position will be, and the better it 
will be, indeed, for all the belligerents when the 
time comes for discussing the conclusion of peace. 

" For I shall not be indiscreet if I give voice to 
the thought held by many people that the role of 
the United States is bound to be a most important 
one at that moment. 

" President Wilson's recent offer," he said, " was 
timely, and although every one knew that it could 
not then be accepted, yet it had the effect of setting 
men's minds thinking. 

" What nation could be more fitted than the 
United States to take the lead in the peace nego- 
tiations? " asked Mr. Sharp. " In our nation are 
amalgamated all the races now at war. Our sin- 
cerity is undoubted. Our natural position of im- 
partiality and neutrality is such that America's 
voice would be surely listened to at the opportune 
moment." 

Mr. Sharp himself belongs to several peace or- 
ganizations in America. He believes that after the 

[195] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

present war there will be a complete revulsion of 
public opinion throughout the world in favor of 
peace. Never, he said, will there have been a riper 
moment for some scheme of general disarmament. 

Mr. Sharp would like to see the United States a 
party to an epoch-making treaty sealing such an 
international accord. In this respect he believes 
that, atrocious as this European conflagration is, 
good will be the outcome for all nations, whoever 
the victors may be, if Europe reaps a lasting peace. 

Mr. Sharp comes to Paris with a general knowl- 
edge of international political affairs, having served 
as a member in the United States Congress for three 
terms, and holding position of ranking member of 
the Foreign Affairs Committee at the time of his 
appointment. 



[196] 



Thursday, September 10. 

Thirty - ninth day of the war. Cloudy weather, 
with a brisk shower and some thunder at three this 
afternoon. Afterwards fine. Southerly wind. Tem- 
perature at five p. M. 22 degrees centigrade. 

Favorable news was communicated at eleven 
o'clock this evening at the headquarters at the In- 
valides. After four days of steady fighting, the 
allied left wing has crossed the Marne near Charly 
and driven back the enemy sixty kilometers, the 
British taking many prisoners and machine guns. 
Near Sezanne, the Prussian Guard Corps has been 
driven back, north of the marshes of St. Gond. No 
change is noted in relative positions on the allied 
center and right, where fighting still continues with 
great violence. 

I went to the official press bureau at three this 
afternoon and met there M. Arthur Meyer, the 
genial and venerable editor of the Gaulois, and 
about forty French and foreign journalists. M. 
Arthur Meyer, as " dean " of our calling, had a 
pleasant word and smile for all. Just before the 

[197] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

official communique, the director of the Press 
Bureau, Commandant Klotz, former Minister of 
Finance, instructed his assistant to notify all present 
that " any reproduction of or even allusion to the 
interview published in an American morning paper 
(the Paris Herald) with an American diplomatist 
would not pass the censor if handed in at the tele- 
graph or cable offices, and also that its appearance 
in any French newspaper was prohibited. The 
reason for this is that the interview might cause 
misunderstanding, and that it merely reflected the 
personal opinions of a private individual who in no 
way was an accredited representative of the United 
States." 

This " official rebuke " was of course intended 
for Mr. William G. Sharp, whose interview was 
printed in to-day's Herald. According to European 
custom, diplomacy is a special calling or profession 
like those of the soldier, sailor, lawyer, or physician. 
Amateur diplomacy has no place in Europe, and to 
the French mind, the presence in Paris of an un- 
accredited, although designated, ambassador, who 
expresses his personal opinions on every subject, 
while there is a duly accredited ambassador here, 
is an anomaly, causing no little annoyance to the 

[198] 



PARIS WAU DAYS 

authorities, and tending to hamper and discredit 
the official representative of the United States in 
Paris. 

It is whispered that this " diplomatic indiscre- 
tion " of Mr. Sharp may lead to a refusal of the 
French Government, when the time comes, to grant 
his credentials. All the more so, because when Mr. 
Sharp was first spoken of as a possible ambassador 
to Russia, the Russian Foreign Office notified Wash- 
ington that Mr. Sharp was not exactly a 'persona 
grata, owing to certain public statements attributed 
to him concerning the attitude of the Russian Gov- 
ernment in regard to passports to Jews of American 
and other nationalities. When Mr. Sharp was 
nominated as American Ambassador to France, the 
French Foreign Office discreetly inquired at St. 
Petersburg whether the Russian Government had 
any objection to Mr. Sharp being accepted in Paris 
as the United States Ambassador. The reply from 
St. Petersburg was that " there were no objections ", 
consequently the usual intimation was given by the 
Quai d'Orsay that Mr. Sharp would be an agreeable 
person in Paris. The arrival here of Mr. Sharp, in 
the midst of the war, and his interview on the situa- 
tion, however, has not influenced the French officials 

[199] 



PARIS WAR BAYS 

at the Foreign Office in his favor. Mr. Sharp is 
unquestionably a patriotic, clear-headed, capable, 
and highly intelligent representative of our country- 
men, and moreover, he is now obtaining diplomatic 
experience. 

Spain has also had some tribulation with its am- 
bassadors to France. When President Poincare and 
the French Cabinet decided to transfer the seat of 
government to Bordeaux, the Spanish Ambassador, 
Marquis de Villa Urrutia, was about to quit Paris 
with President Poincare, but the King of Spain 
wished his representative to remain in Paris. The 
marquis, however, to use an American expression, 
got ** cold feet " and expressed a wish to go to 
Bordeaux. When this news reached King Alfonso, 
it so happened that Lieutenant-general de los Mon- 
teros, Marquis de Valtierra, Captain-general of 
Northern Spain at Burgos and San Sebastian, was 
in conference with the king. King Alfonso asked 
the Marquis de Valtierra where in his opinion would 
be the proper place in France for the Spanish Am- 
bassador. ** Why," was the quick reply, " Paris, 
of course." " Well," said the king, " that is not 
the opinion of the Marquis de Villa Urrutia, but it 
is also my own opinion, and I have now decided to 

[2001 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

send you to Paris as my ambassador! " Conse- 
quently, Xhe Marquis de Villa Urrutia was forthwith 
replaced by the Marquis de Valtierra, who is already 
duly installed in the Spanish Embassy in the Boule- 
vard de Courcelles. The new Spanish Ambas- 
sador speaks English perfectly, as well as French, 
and he is a personal friend of Ambassador Herrick. 
The condition at the outbreak of the war of some 
of the French fortresses in the north near the Bel- 
gian frontier, as well as around Rheims and Vitry-le- 
FranQois, for which the French Chamber of Depu- 
ties refused in 1899 to vote appropriations, is being 
paid for a thousandfold to-day. In 1885, when 
experiments made at Malmaison with the newly- 
invented torpedo shells, then about to be adopted 
by the German artillery, showed that no forts could 
resist them unless provided with armor plates and 
with bSton protection for men and ammunition, a 
new plan of defence was drawn up. As the cost of 
the new armor and protection for the forts was very 
great, it was decided to dSclasser a number of for- 
tresses, among which were Lille, Douai, Arras, Lan- 
drecies, Peronne, Vitry-le-Frangois, and others. It 
had already been foreseen that the main German 
attack would some day be made through Luxem- 

[201] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

burg and Belgium. The fortresses of Maubeuge, 
Charlemont (Givet), Montmedy, and Longwy then 
became of supreme importance, for the defence of 
northern France against an invading army through 
Belgium. The Chamber of Deputies persistently 
refused to vote the necessary money, and the 
result of this want of foresight became painfully 
apparent during the present war, when the Germans 
made their broad sweep from Belgium to Compiegne, 
meeting on their way with no permanent works of 
defence. 

The civil and religious wedding of Mr. James 
Gordon Bennett, proprietor of the New YorJc Herald, 
with Baroness George de Renter took place to-day 
at the Town Hall of the ninth arrondissement of 
Paris, and at the American Episcopal Church of the 
Holy Trinity, in the Avenue de I'Alma. The wit- 
nesses of the bride were the Due de Camastra and 
Vicomte de Breteuil. Those for Mr. Bennett were 
the American Ambassador, Mr. Herrick, and Pro- 
fessor Albert Robin, the well-known scientist and 
member of the French Academy of Medicine. The 
bride was the widow of Baron George de Renter, 
and was formerly Miss Potter of Baltimore. The 
ceremonies were very simple, the only guests being 

[202] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

Mrs. Herrick and the Vicomtesse de Breteuil. 
The ceremony in the church was performed by the 
Reverend Doctor Watson. Those present after- 
wards took tea at the residence of Mrs. Bennett in 
the Rue de Lubeck. The day before the wedding 
Mr. Bennett had been confirmed by the Reverend 
Doctor Watson in the faith of the American Episco- 
pal Church. It will be remembered that Mr. Ben- 
nett's father was a Scotch Roman Catholic, while 
his mother was an Irish Protestant, a combination 
that seldom occurs, and which often induced Mr. 
Bennett to playfully remark: "I take after both 
my father and my mother, for when I find myself 
surrounded by genial conviviality, I feel that I am an 
Irishman, but when amidst grave cares and weighty 
business, I am a Scotchman." 



[203] 



Friday y September 11. 

Fortieth day of the war. Overcast sky from 
dawn to noon, then steady, heavy rain all the after- 
noon. Southwest wind, blowing in gusts. Ther- 
mometer at five p. M. 17 degrees centigrade. 

The Germans continue to retire north of the 
Marne towards Soissons. The British army has 
captured eleven guns, stores, ammunition, and 
fifteen hundred prisoners. The German retreat 
measures seventy kilometers in four days. All 
seems to go well with the allies. The heavy rain is 
bad for the German retreat, especially in the swampy 
ground they must pass through. 

All this cheerful news from the front gives renewed 
confidence to the two millions of Parisians remaining 
at home, who begin to feel that there is no longer 
any imminent danger of being besieged. 

What might be called a side-issue of the war 
appeared to-day in the shape of a new English daily 
newspaper published in Paris, called the Paris Daily 
Post. It consists of a small single sheet — the 
Figaro, and the Echo de Paris, are the only papers 
now printed on double sheets — and in an editorial 

[204] 



PARIS WAR, DAYS 

note declares that its policy is to " preach courage 
and confidence." It is an unpretentious, lively, 
amusing little production and may eventually have 
a brilliant career. 

Many of the wounded now coming in to the hos- 
pitals are being treated for rheumatism contracted 
in the trenches during days and nights of exposure 
to the rain. A man of the East Lancashire Regi- 
ment, who had his left arm smashed by a shell, said 
that when his detachment were attacked at dawn 
in a village near Compiegne, " the terrified women 
and children rushed into the streets in their night 
gowns. Their houses were being smashed like pie- 
crust. It made us feel badly to see some of these 
poor women and children blown to pieces by the 
German shells. We tried to put them in whatever 
shelter was available." 

Professor Pierre Delbet, of the Paris Faculty of 
Medicine, relates an extraordinary conversation 
between a young general commanding a division of 
the Prussian Guard Corps and Doctor Delbet's 
mother, who is a venerable lady of seventy-seven. 
Professor Delbet went yesterday to visit his mother 
at her country house situated in a village on the 
Grand Morin River, in the heart of the region where 

[ 205 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

the fighting took place a few days ago. Madame Del- 
bet's house is in the center of the village, and on her 
grounds a small wooden bridge connects the court- 
yard and flower garden with the vegetable garden 
on the other bank. There are two public bridges 
at the ends of the village, but these had been blown 
up by the French engineer soldiers. Last Friday 
morning the Germans arrived and smashed open the 
double gate of Madame Delbet's house. A young 
general, with an eyeglass fixed to his left eye, ap- 
proached, while a soldier stood with a loaded re- 
volver pointed at the old lady's head. The general 
remarked with politeness: "Madame, you will let 
us pass over your private bridge." 

" I have no means of preventing you, but I warn 
you the bridge is not very solid." 

"Ah! we will see to that." 

The general gave orders, and in fifteen minutes 
the rickety bridge was braced up with three strong 
trusses. Then thirty soldiers were put on the 
bridge and jumped six times in unison at the word 
of command. After this test, the passage of troops 
began, while the pontoniers were repairing the two 
public bridges. The general approached Madame 
Delbet and with great courtesy placed two com- 

[ 206 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

fortable armchairs in a shady nook of the courtyard, 
and by an invitation that seemed to be a command, 
requested her to take a seat and see " the little 
Prussian review that would surely be interesting.'* 
The old lady sat beside the general and witnessed 
the d^fiU that lasted seven hours — from 11.30 in 
the morning to 6.30 in the evening. The general 
scrutinized his men through his monocle. By and 
by he had his servant make some tea and toast, 
which he offered to his " hostess." While sipping 
tea, the general said : " Madame, when you become 
a German, as will surely be the case, you will be 
proud to recollect that you witnessed the passage 
of my troops over your bridge. I shall have a bronze 
tablet made and placed over your gate to com- 
memorate the event." 

When Madame Delbet protested, the general 
burst into a hearty laugh, and said : " Why, Ma- 
dame, that is already settled. You cannot defend 
yourselves. Oh, yes! you have in mind your 
friends the English and your friends the Rus- 
sians. But your good friends the English can only 
fight on the sea; they are of no value on land. As 
for the Russians, they don't know what an army is! " 

At this moment the cavalry was passing over the 
[207] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

bridge three abreast, and a lancer accidentally 
knocked over a bison's head that was hung in the 
court as a hunting trophy. The general severely 
reprimanded the trooper for his carelessness, and 
ordered the cavalry to cross two abreast. The 
conversation continued. Madame Delbet said that 
she thought the Russians had made considerable 
progress since the Japanese war. " Ah, yes, per- 
haps, but they have no real army yet ! " 

The general then remarked : ** Now about the 
French. You, yourself, Madame, must be aware, 
as you belong to a medical family, that the French 
are absolutely degenerate. The- French have come 
to the end of their tether! I will let you into one 
of our secrets. This will be our ultimatum, of which 
I have already read the text. Voila! We have de- 
cided to preserve a selection of the best and healthi- 
est Frenchmen and marry them to well-chosen 
North German girls of strong shape and build. 
The result of this cross may be useful children. As 
to the other Frenchmen who survive the war, we 
have arranged to export them all to North and 
South America! '* 

" But, General," replied Madame Delbet, " we 
have had at least some success during the war.'* 

[208] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

" None whatever, Madame! " 

" Why! We have captured some flags, anyway! " 

" Where did you see that? " 

" In the newspapers." 

" The French, Enghsh, and American newspapers 
pubhsh nothing but lies. In two days we shall be 
in Paris." 

The general then gave a fresh turn to his eyeglass 
and called Madame Delbet's attention to the splen- 
did physique, smart appearance, perfect order, 
method, and discipline of his troops. Madame Del- 
bet admitted that this praise was fully justified, for 
the troops and horses were quite fresh, their uni- 
forms and equipments were all spick and span, and 
the officers even wore fresh, unspotted gloves. 

On Sunday the general took his departure. As 
he came to bid Madame Delbet good-by, he said : 
" I am going to Paris, Madame, and if I can be of 
any service to you there, kindly let me know." 
He then mounted his beautiful bay charger and rode 
away, followed by his staff. A couple of officers 
and a small detachment were left in the village. 

Monday morning a German automobile dashed 
through the village at fourth speed. A sentry dis- 
charged his rifle as a signal. The same troops came 

[209] 



PAKIS WAR DAYS 

trotting back again over the three bridges. One of 
them, who had been particularly attentive to Ma- 
dame Delbet's maid, passed through the little court- 
yard. The maid slyly asked: *' Is that the road to 
Paris? '* She received the reply from her admirer: 
''Plus Paris! Plus Paris! " 

Soon afterwards, some French dragoons galloped 
into the village over the bridges that the Germans 
had had no time to destroy. Then came two bat- 
talions of British infantry, at a double, over Ma- 
dame Delbet's little garden bridge, and they de- 
ployed and opened fire on the retreating Germans. 
" A Paris! " and " Plus Paris! " are words that 
Madame Delbet says will always ring in her ears, 
for these phrases exactly describe the picturesque 
side glimpse of the war that passed in her pretty 
little courtyard, lined with rose-bushes, near her 
rustic wooden bridge. Professor Pierre Delbet 
vouches for the implicit accuracy of this charac- 
teristic conversation between his mother and the 
young lieutenant-general of the Prussian Guard 
Corps. 



[210] 



Saturday, September 12. 

Forty - first day of the war. Rain and drizzle 
with southwesterly wind. Thermometer at five 
p. M. 15 degrees centigrade. 

Good news. Six days' steady, hard fighting re- 
sults in a French victory all along the line of the 
Marne. The German retreat is general. It is 
astonishing to see how quietly and calmly Parisians 
receive the welcome news. They are naturally 
delighted, but there are no wild outbursts of en- 
thusiasm. They fully realize that this is merely 
one of the phases of the long, hard struggle. 

Both General-in-Chief Joffre, and the German 
General Staff, foresaw that the great battle of the 
Marne must be decisive. General Joffre, in his 
order of the day of September 6, impressed upon his 
troops that " upon the coming battle the salvation 
of the country would depend ", and admonished his 
soldiers that " if they should be unable to advance 
further, they must hold their ground or be killed on 
the spot, rather than retire." When the French 
cavalry made a sudden dash into Vitry-le-Frangois 

[211] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

and entered the house that had been occupied by 
the headquarters staff of the Eighth Army Corps, 
which had been hastily abandoned a few minutes 
before, they found, signed by Lieutenant-general 
Tulff von Tscheppe und Werdenbach, a general 
order which ran as follows : 

Vitry-Ie-Frangois, September 7, 10.30 a. m. — The goal 
pursued by our long and painful marches is reached. 
The principal French forces have had to accept battle 
after withdrawing continually. The great decision is un- 
doubtedly near at hand. To-morrow, therefore, the total 
forces of the German army, as well as all those of our 
army corps, wiU have to be engaged all along the line 
going from Paris to Verdun. To save the happiness and 
honor of Germany, I expect from each officer and soldier, 
despite the hard and heroic fighting of the last few days, 
that he will accomplish his duty entirely and to his last 
breath. All depends upon the result of to-morrow's 
battle. 



[212] 



Sunday, September 13. 

Forty - second day of the war. Cloudy weather, 
with strong westerly wind. Temperature at five 
P. M. 19 degrees centigrade. 

I took one of the four daily trains for Havre, 
leaving the Gare Saint-Lazare, for my little country 
place in Vernon at 9.33 this morning and met in 
the same compartment Captain Decker, com- 
mander of the U. S. S. Tennessee, and two officers 
of his ship, which acts as a sort of ferry-boat for 
Americans stranded in France, carrying them to 
England. The Tennessee will sail from Havre to- 
morrow for Falmouth. The United States naval 
officers were in uniform and were constantly mis- 
taken for British army officers. The military com- 
manders at the stations came on board the train to 
ask if they could be of any service to them, and 
they were saluted with enthusiasm whenever they 
showed themselves. The train, conforming to the 
war regulations on all the railroads, went at the 
uniform prescribed pace of thirty miles an hour and 
stopped at every station, consequently we were four 

[ 213 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

hours, instead of the usual one hour and ten minutes 
in getting to Vernon, which is only fifty miles from 
Paris. At Acheres, the junction with the northern 
lines, two carloads of wounded were hitched to our 
train. I found barricades on the outskirts of Vernon 
and the beautiful bridge, that had been blown up 
by the French in 1870 in a vain attempt to prevent 
the German occupation, was mined, so that it could 
be instantly destroyed. I found my little garden 
rather neglected, for the man who looks after it had 
been " mobilized " and is now lying in a hospital at 
Bordeaux, getting over a shrapnel wound in the 
leg. The place nevertheless was full of pears, 
peaches, figs, green corn, American squashes, beans, 
tomatoes, and no end of roses, gladioli, tobacco 
plant, hollyhocks, heliotrope, dahlias, morning- 
glories, verbena, and sunflowers. 

I visited the Red Cross Hospital which, under the 
direction of Madame Steiner, wife of the mayor 
of Vernon, is doing splendid work at Vernonnet. 
There were two hundred wounded officers and sol- 
diers here; among them were a dozen Belgians 
and a score of ** Turcos ", Algerian riflemen, who 
seemed very patient and docile. Some twenty 
wounded Germans here receive exactly the same 

[214] 



R:6:PtJBLIQXJEl ETR-A.3SrgJU[SEl 



GOUVERNEMENT MILITAIRE DE PARIS 



PREFECTURE DE POLICE 



SAUF-CONDUIT 



(1) 



Pour les personnes voyageant 



en trar 

en bateau^ 

en chernin de fer. 




.^.j^P'^^^i^'i^ Signalement : 

2^*C*^*s<^ ^^^^-^^-^t/^n^ Age ^ ty^ t^*.^ 

Domi 




licile J^ /Z4.<^ ^^^A^^u^^/^^'^rArhQ ,^..^ 
Signature du porteur : 



Signes particaliers ajparents : 



Destination pow" Aes voyageurs enycheniif-^e fer^: 




Emplaceraoiit du timbre 
du Commissariat de Police 



/^^, u/T y^>^ 19U 



•'re de Police, 




Photo. H. C. Ellis, Paris. 

' Sauf-Conduit " issued by the Prefecture of Police to persons 
wishing to travel. 



PAEIS WAR DAYS 

treatment as the French. The German soldiers were 
from Prussian-Polish and Saxon regiments. The 
officers, five altogether, in a separate ward, were 
extremely reticent, and it was only with great diffi- 
culty that they could be induced to give their 
names and the numbers of their regiments. Hap- 
pening to speak German, I acted as interpreter 
during the inspection by the French Medical Di- 
rector. These young officers seemed greatly de- 
pressed and mortified at finding themselves pris- 
oners. 

While strolling about Vernon, I met Frederick 
MacMonnies, the American sculptor, and his wife, 
riding on bicycles. They had come from Giverny, 
some three miles away, where MacMonnies has his 
studio, not far from that of Claude Monet. Mac- 
Monnies told me that his studio was now a hos- 
pital with fifty beds, all of which were occupied by 
French and Belgians. Mrs. MacMonnies aids the 
surgeons in tending the wounded. During the ap- 
proach of the Germans towards Beauvais, it was 
thought that Uhlans would soon appear at Vernon, 
and orders had been given to evacuate the hospitals. 
MacMonnies buried his valuable tapestries and 
rare works of French and Italian Renaissanpe art and 

[215] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

prepared for the worst. Fortunately Vernon, Gi- 
verny, Paris, and its delightful neighborhood seems 
no longer to be in danger from invaders, and the 
people are recovering their peace of mind. 



[216 



Monday, September lU. 

Forty - third day of the war. Dull morning 
with slight showers. Sky overcast all the afternoon. 
Southwesterly wind blowing strong. Thermometer 
at five p. M. 16 degrees centigrade. 

Back in Paris again, after a five hours' ride in a 
second-class compartment intended for ten, packed 
with twelve. Most of my fellow-passengers were 
refugees returning to Creil, Beaumont-sur-Oise, 
and other places north of Paris, now evacuated by 
the Germans. 

Within living memory Paris has rarely seen so 
dense and vast a throng as that which assembled 
on Sunday in the Cathedral of Notre Dame for the 
special service of " intercession for the success of 
French arms ", when Monseigneur Amette, Cardinal 
of Paris, preached a stirring sermon, exhorting 
people to " make extreme sacrifice for their native 
land." There must have been eight thousand per- 
sons in the cathedral. Not only were the five naves 
densely packed, but all the chapels along the side 
aisles were crowded with worshippers. An im- 

[217] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

posing procession was formed, including many re- 
ligious bodies, associations of young girls, and all 
the Roman Catholic clergy of Paris. This cortege 
left the cathedral through the three gates of the 
great fagade and took up its position between the 
basilica and the exterior railings. Here a temporary 
platform had been erected, from which Monseigneur 
Amette addressed the enormous crowd that filled 
the Rue d'Argonne, the Pont Notre Dame, and the 
Place Notre Dame, right up to the Prefecture of 
Police. After the Cardinal had pronounced the 
benediction, the crowd joined with impressive 
solemnity in the invocation of Sainte-Genevieve, 
Saint-Denis, Joan of Arc, and other saints on behalf 
of the French armies, and afterwards dispersed 
quietly and reverently. 



[218] 



Tuesday^ September 15. 

Forty - fourth day of the war. Gray, cloudy 
day, with occasional glimpses of sunshine. Brisk 
southwest wind. Temperature at five p. m. 15 de- 
grees centigrade. 

The Franco-British armies are close on the Ger- 
mans' heels, but as everybody in Paris expected, 
the enemy is inclined to resist along their new lines. 
They are throwing up defences on the northwest, 
from the forest of TAigle to Craonne, and in the 
center from north of Rheims and the Camp of 
Chalons to Vienne-la-Ville on the west fringe of the 
Argonne. 

The outlook seems so encouraging to the Herald 
that it has returned to ante-bellum conditions and 
reduced its price to fifteen centimes in|France, and 
twenty-five centimes abroad, and usually appears 
in double sheet form. 

Another American wedding to-day at the Town 
Hall of the sixth arrondissement. The bridegroom 
was Mr. John R. Clarke of New York, and the 
bride was Miss Marion Virginia Goode, also an 

[219] 



PARIS WAK DAYS 

American. Mr. Clarke went to the front imme- 
diately after the wedding, having volunteered in 
the British army for automobile service. He was 
arrayed in the regulation khaki uniform, and as he 
drove to the Mairie in his car just brought back 
from the Aisne with a number of bullet-holes in it, 
he was greeted with cheers. The bridal party was 
accompanied by Mr. Charles G. Loeb, of the Ameri- 
can law firm of Valois, Loeb and Company. 

The American Ambulance Hospital at Neuilly is 
doing really effective work. Among the wounded 
being treated there are French, Belgians, a few 
" Turcos ", British officers and men, and some 
wounded German prisoners. Mrs. William K. Van- 
derbilt, who has been entrusted by the French Red 
Cross Association with the charge of the hospital, 
is indefatigable in her personal attention and ef- 
forts. The organization seems perfect. The funds so 
far subscribed exceed five hundred and seventy-four 
thousand francs. During a brief visit to the hospital, 
I noticed that Mrs. Vanderbilt herself visited the 
wounded, and with the aid of her experienced staff 
of trained nurses, prepared them for surgical opera- 
tions. Mrs. Vanderbilt wore the white Red Cross 
uniform. Half concealed about her neck was a 

[ 220 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

double string of pearls. Rose-colored silk stockings 
were tipped with neat but serviceable white shoes, 
and in this attire she seemed to impersonate the 
presiding " good angel " of the hospital. 

Through the courtesy of a friend who was going 
to Meaux in charge of a Red Cross automobile to 
distribute hospital stores to a field hospital near 
Plessis-Pacy, I had an opportunity to visit the scene 
of the recent battles along the Ourcq Canal, where 
General von Kluck's army met its first signal de- 
feat. We came near to the villages of Chambry, 
Marcilly, Etrepilly, and Vincy — along the road 
from Meaux to Soissons — and found that the 
trenches dug by the Germans were filled with 
human corpses in thick, serried masses. Quicklime 
and straw had been thrown over them by the ton. 
Piles of bodies of men and of horses had been par- 
tially cremated in the most rudimentary fashion. 
The country seemed to be one endless charnel- 
house. The stench of the dead was appalling. Of 
the fifty odd houses that form the village of Etre- 
pilly, not one remained intact. Some of them had 
been hit by a shell that penetrated through the 
roof, falling into the cellar, and by its explosion 
bringing down from garret or second story all the 

[ 221 ] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

furniture in one confused mass of ruin. But many 
other houses had been simply sacked and looted. 
Cupboards, chests of drawers, and wardrobes were 
smashed open, and their contents scattered pell- 
mell in the streets, courtyards, and fields. Here 
was the portrait of an ancestor ripped to shreds by 
a bayonet; there was a child's cradle. An old- 
fashioned grandmother's armchair, with its cush- 
ions and ear-laps, lay smashed in fragments in the 
gutter. The village had fortunately been deserted 
by its inhabitants at the approach of the Germans, 
who, furious with rage, had looted, sacked, or 
wantonly destroyed whatever they found. 

How thirsty the Germans were! The roads and 
fields and trenches were strewn with bottles, full or 
half -empty. The Germans must have been obliged 
to retreat suddenly, for heaps of unexploded shells 
for the three-inch and five-inch German field-guns 
were abandoned, and in wicker baskets were^^loads of 
three-inch unexploded shells, apparently about to 
be served to the gunners. Wanton, ruthless devas- 
tation everywhere! In a field was a wrecked aero- 
plane, a white and yellow tauhe, with its right wing 
reaching into the air, looking like some gigantic, 
wounded bird. Towards sunset, an automobile 

[222] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

passed along the road through this terrible desolate 
valley of death. In it sat Monseigneur Marbeau, the 
venerable Bishop of Meaux — the successor of Bos- 
suet, the famous " Eagle of Meaux " — who now 
and then raised his right finger aloft and then low- 
ered it with the sign of the cross, as he pronounced 
benedictions on this vast charnel-house. A great 
number of German killed and wounded wearing 
uniforms of the Eleventh Prussian Infantry Regi- 
ment indicated that this corps had occupied the 
village of Etrepilly. As there were no civilian vil- 
lagers noticed in this part of the country, this seems 
presumptive evidence that the Eleventh Prussian 
Infantry participated in this looting and wanton 
devastation. 

As we were about to return to Paris, we met a 
friend of M. Gaston Menier on his way from the 
latter's country-house near Villa-Cotterets, where 
the memorable chasses a courre take place in the 
forest, which, under normal conditions, abounds in 
deer and stags. The chateau had been used as the 
headquarters of a brigade of Bavarian infantry. 
The house was intact, but some valuable furniture 
of the Louis XV period and some paintings had 
been destroyed, and the cellar, that had contained 

[223] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

over two thousand bottles of excellent wine, in- 
cluding forty dozen bottles of champagne of the 
admirable vintage of 1904, had been " visited ", 
and only seven bottles remained. The Bavarians, 
in pursuance of their practice in 1870, carried away 
all the clocks in the chateau. 



[224] 



Wednesday, September 16. 

Forty - fifth day of the war. Sky heavily over- 
cast. Southwesterly wind. Thermometer at five 
p. M. 15 degrees centigrade. 

After the victorious contest of the Marne, we are 
now to have the gigantic struggle of the Aisne. 
The battle now engaged, because the Franco-British 
pursuit has compelled the German armies all along 
the line to reenforce their rear guards and fight, 
extends some one hundred and fifty miles in length 
on one front from Noyon, the heights north of Vic- 
sur-Aisne, Soissons, Rheims, to Ville-sur-Tourbe, 
west of the wooded ridge of the Argonne. Another 
"front'*, where vigorous defence is made by the 
German eastern armies, extends from the eastern 
border of the Argonne to the Forges forest north 
of Verdun, some fifty miles long. 

Now that the Germans are fighting on the defen- 
sive, it is not too soon to record the fact that their 
extraordinary raid of a million of soldiers through 
Belgium to within twenty miles of Paris has failed. 
Nothing in military history approaches this ava- 

[225] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

lanche of armies. The German invasion of France 
and the threat to invest and capture Paris is coming 
to an end. Yet this war can only be ended by an 
invasion either of France or of Germany being 
driven to a triumphant conclusion. The theater 
of war must soon be transferred from France to 
the east. The curtain falls upon the German inva- 
sion of France, and for the present, at least, Paris 
is no longer in danger. I see that a change has 
come over the Parisians, and I can read in their 
calm, confident faces the brighter phase that the 
war has assumed. Parisians of every class, from 
the grande dame of the Faubourg Saint-Germain to 
the midinette of the Rue de la Paix, or the profes- 
sional beauty of Montmartre, are subdued and 
chastened by the sudden change that overtook their 
bright and exuberant existence. During this first 
period of the war, Paris assumed the aspect of a 
Scottish Sabbath. Feverish pursuit of pleasure, 
earnest hard work, luxury, elegant distinction, 
thrift, thronged boulevards, crowded theaters, clam- 
orous music halls, frisky supper parties, tango teas, 
overflowing gaiety, sparkling wit, boisterous fun, 
and sly humor, have all vanished. The machinery 
of Parisian life is working at quarter speed. Streets 

[226] 



PARIS WAR DAYS 

are nearly deserted, except for rapidly flitting auto- 
mobiles, used mostly for military purposes. The 
Rue de la Paix is a vacant pathway, where one 
might play lawn tennis all day long. Probably 
three fourths of the Paris shops are still closed. 
The underground trains are as yet few and far be- 
tween. Now and then a tramway rumbles along 
the streets, but there is not a solitary omnibus run- 
ning in the city. The popularity of the bicycle is 
regained, for well-to-do folk whose motor-cars have 
been requisitioned now make use of the humble 
wheel. The quaint, one-horse cab, evoking sou- 
venirs of Murger, Paul de Kock, and Guy de Mau- 
passant, with venerable cochevy re-appears. There 
are some auto-taxicabs about, and their slowly in- 
creasing number indicates that Paris is beginning 
to shake off the paralysis imposed by the outbreak 
of the war. Undisturbed by the turmoil, the forty 
** immortal " Academicians are continuing their 
labors on the Dictionary of the Academy. They are 
approaching the end of the letter " E '* and are 
to-day discussing, with singular actuality, the word 
" Exodus." May that mean the German exodus 
from French soil! 

THE END 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 939 865 1 




